World Grand Prix Championship 21 [RP/results]

by **Aji No Moto** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 9:48 am

KISMO Headquarters
Serizawa, Aji No Moto

After the race in Ile Saint-Joseph, Hiromu Sugiyama and Kousuke Kasai asked Shuhei Kamado to discuss his future with the team. Having only four points after seven races was not what the team expected of the Ajian rookie, and the former two agreed that they entered the latter too soon into the WGPC competition.

"Shuhei, I think we will need to drop you from the lineup for the remainder of the races. We will ensure though that we will able to enter you in next season's WGP2 competition." Shuhei was visibly upset with what the team principal said in the meeting, but he understood where the team is coming from. After all, he had not gotten the growth he needed, and he was assured of a place in the OGP series taking the place of both Batu Tuvshinbayar and Marie-Theres Paulis. However, it would depend on when the TJUN-ian would be able to confirm the seat if Kamado will race in Hapilopper, and with both WGPC and the OGP series taking place as the latter being a support race of the former, he would still be needed to travel in case Batu would not be able to confirm in time.

With Kamado understood to agree to their decision, KISMO has offered the seat currently held by Shuhei Kamado to Batu Tuvshinbayar. The TJUN-ian driver currently races for WGPC Motorworks, but the latter has informed KISMO that they can agree to release the driver in case Tuvshinbayar accepts the offer.

What does it mean though for Ringo Kawagishi? If Kamado is assured of a spot in ANMARA in case the latter gets accepted for WGP2 competition, then Kawagishi Steel would have to go elsewhere if they want their younger open-wheeler son to race in WGP2, as Kai Sano would advise against putting both Ajian drivers into the team. No comment has been made by the conglomerate if they want to pursue other avenues, of if they will not sponsor ANMARA at all in WGP2 competition.

by **Hodori Motorsports** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 10:27 am

Neomaris
HiTEN.gpt HQ
Wednesday, before the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph

“Cope and seethe fuckers.” Ankei Souzare checked his emails. DFCI were quite unhappy about HiTENCoin and the associated NFTs, DIPP was displeased with HiTEN’s image generator Leonardo and the claims of partnerships with some Hodoran art sharing site among others, and DHTI was politely inquiring about Leonardo’s training data set. “Fuck you.” DFCI’s advisory that a second arrest warrant was waiting for him back in Hodori, sent to trash. “Fuck you.” DIPP’s notice of legal action being taken against HiTEN, sent to trash. “And fuck you.” DHTI’s request for access to Leonardo’s training data, sent to trash. “Cope and seethe.”

Next order of business: requesting refugee status in Neomaris and the remaining stops on the WGPC claendar, citing political persecution by the Hodoran government. With occasional interruptions as updates came in regarding an ongoing manufacturing task, he eventually finished the paperwork and tasked his otherwise ignored receptionist-slash-secretary to handle submitting it.

That done, he began a second ‘important’ task, the final execution of which could wait until his return.

Thursday

After running the array of home-use 3D printers all day yesterday, HiTEN.gpt’s typical battalion of unpaid interns was ready to help complete ‘the future of automotive engineering’ and assemble the blocks of 3D-printed “carbon fibre” pieces into a new car. Ankei himself did not supervise, having already departed for Saint Joseph.

Circuit d'Arès
End of Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph Qualifying

This fucking idiot.

This. Fucking. Idiot.

Kato Kutamicha could only stare helplessly at the live feed monitor as it showed another replay of Ankei completely missing the braking point into the La Herse, slamming on the brakes far too late, locking them and shooting through the runoff into the barrier, understeering with complete loss of traction, a futile attempt being made to make the corner. It slammed into the barrier very slightly off of dead-on, and the car was utterly destroyed as it bounced off towards turn 2.

Everything from the front wheels forward was now strewn between the impact site and the wreck that was the car. The entire nosecone and the team’s one good front wing – the least damaged example – was now useless carbon fibre shrapnel. The sheer kinetic energy from an approximately 200km/h impact into the barrier led to damage to the rest of the car. Though winded, Ankei Souzare survived the crash thanks to a properly designed and constructed survival cell. A survival cell that was now useless due to the impact, bringing the team’s total of usable cars down to one.

At least he had made his run at the end of qualifying, and started his lap in the final minute of the session, so his useless qualifying lap and the session-interrupting crash didn’t hamper any of the other drivers.

“I have some good news, and a lot of bad news. I’d like to end this meeting on a high note, so we’ll start with the bad.” Andema Yaraza addressed the gathered mechanics in HiTEN’s garage. “First, as you can see, the car’s trashed.” He slapped the sidepod, the fractured part responding by fully detaching itself from the car. “Survival cell’s compromised. Second, that fucking dumbass hasn’t gotten himself booted out yet. Third matter, we don’t have any more parts to cannibalise to put together to replace what he’s destroyed, so Hanna’s going to need to be extra careful to keep this last wing intact. Now the good news. For medical reasons stemming from his crash and pace reasons stemming from his qualifying, Ankei Souzare’s out for the rest of the weekend. Secondly, we’re reaching out to some ex-WGPC teams – Carvenlo, Eminent and their partner Sidus, and Kaylan – to see if we can reach a deal for them to sell us their old cars or supply us with new parts and a new survival cell. Meanwhile, some of our TACH compatriots back in Ikasamo have been working on fabricating new parts in the event those teams can’t or won’t help us. And finally, we expect either this or Happiloper to be the last weekend we’re competing as HiTEN.”

Neomaris
HiTEN.gpt HQ
Monday, before the Grand Prix of Hapilopper

Boss
We have a problem
Someone hacked our site
The texts regarding an urgent matter were sent by IT Friday. Ankei Souzare was stuck dealing with a WGPC session for the weekend, and then a hospital stay after his end-of-qualifying crash. So the first thing he did when he was discharged was book a flight back to the Lisanderian protectorate.

“Why haven’t you fixed this yet?”
“We tried. We’re locked out of administrative controls.”
IT showed Ankei as the younger man attempted to log in.

Username: admin
Password: admin

The result was an error message: the login credentials are incorrect.
Looking through the new site map, everything was defaced. All with various dancing catgirls and paragraphs with Ankei Souzare as the butt of jokes, all proudly proclaimed to be the work of a group called “BITCHES”.

And also a line shouting out their favourite pigeon aficionado with a liking for the number 87.

No matter. Even with everything vandalised, Ankei had a separate backup system to finish a task he had put on hold for the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph: making use of Leonardo to try and convince some governments to not cooperate with Hodoran law enforcement.

The fruits of four and a half hours of prompt engineering and waiting out DDoS attacks: AI-generated images depicting the heads of DFCI, DIPP, and DHTI engaging in indecent acts with minors. Now, after returning from Saint Joseph and looking up the various anonymous email tip lines, he sent copies of the images to local, Happilopian, Esmerelian, and Liventian law enforcement agencies.

Ankei Souzare never bothered to check that the situations in the images made anatomical or spatial sense (they didn’t) or that there were the correct number of limbs and fingers (there were too many of each). Neither did he ensure that the metadata was spoofed to look like it was from an actual camera, instead leaving the entire prompt in the attempts at blackmail. Instead he chose to rely entirely on the shock value of the offensive, fake images. He had also failed to send the images from an expendable throwaway email address, one not clearly connected to Ankei, instead using his HiTEN.gpt email.

Unbeknownst to Ankei, DHTI had already gone and quietly contacted the law enforcement agencies of Neomaris and every previous and upcoming host nation of the 21st WGPC season regarding their concerns about this very scenario a week ago, the day before they inquired about the images used to train Leonardo.

Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit
Friday Morning

Leaning against a garage wall, Lieutenant Kuuka Souzare of the Soeshu Metropolitan Police Central Ward Homicide Division looked up from her phone as Kutamicha confronted her idiot disowned distant cousin when the dumbass strutted back into the garage after the team brought the new second car in. Thinking the dumbass was going to engage in a further bout of terminal stupidity on top of everything he had already done that her superiors had interrupted her “vacation” to inform her of, she closed the game she was playing and pulled up the camera, recording the encounter for posterity.

Ankei Souzare drew close to Kutamicha. “The fuck’s your problem now?”
Kutamicha gestured to the 3D-printed car, carrying Berezowska’s driver number. From how parts were sagging under their own weight, it appeared to be actively melting. Large seams in the bodywork were forming where the adhesive used to connect the blocks had not been properly applied or cured, exacerbated by the lack of a brick-like arrangement to the blocks. The upper suspension arms of all four wheels had broken free of the bodywork, punching through where their associated mounting point blocks had allegedly been glued to their neighbors. The DIADEM-esque supplemental head protection system was threatening to fall through the car due to the tungsten element’s weight. Kutamicha didn’t even say a word as he pointed, letting the car’s state speak for itself.
“You were the last ones to touch the car. It was perfectly fine when it came off the truck.”
“It was falling apart before we even moved it into the garage!”
“Bullshit. You’re always complaining that you don’t have enough parts. And when I go above and beyond to get you not only new parts but an entire car? You assholes go and break it!”
“What the fuck is this even made of? Tissue paper?!”
“It’s an innovative new material!” Ankei seemed rather proud of his ‘handiwork’, and quite offended that it was going unappreciated. “It’s 3D-printed carbon fibre!”
Kutamicha stepped closer to the car. For a few moments, this took him away from Ankei. Kutamicha ran a hand across the front nosecone’s seam where it was preparing to detach itself from the cockpit. “Did you even get this certified with the WGPO? Did you even crash test this thing?”
Ankei shrugged dismissively. “No need. It’s the same material, same design. Just assembled different.”
Kutamicha looked back at the car. One of the drooping mirrors finally decided to give up and separated from its mount, dropping down onto the sidepod and worsening one of the rifts forming there. “You cannot change a fabrication method and say everything is the same! The WGPO will never allow this on track!!”
“You’re only saying that because you hate innovation.”
“Just look at the car!!!” The improperly cured adhesives holding the rear wing’s downforce-generating plane to the endplates and the DRS flap to the hinges and servo finally failed, leaving the elements to the mercy of gravity.
“Yes, I see it. You broke it, now fix it.”
Kutamicha stared at Ankei, slack jawed.
“So are we done here?” Ankei turned on his heel.
Kutamicha started to yell even louder, in English. “WE WILL NOT PUT HANNA IN THIS CAR!! YOU ARE GOING TO KILL HER!!”
Ankei gave another dismissive shrug. “Innovation requires sacrifice.”
Another few seconds of stunned silence from Kutamicha.
“If you want to make an omelet, you need to break a couple eggs after all.”
Kutamicha finally gave a retort, switching back to Hodoran. “Linco McPahan gave more of a shit about the well-being of his drivers!” Linco McPahan very famously did not give a shit about the well-being of his drivers, to the point that one had a harrowing flight and crash into a bridge and the other narrowly escaped his car’s detonation after a win in Falcania, the latter incident causing the death of McPahan himself and forever tarnishing the team’s reputation in Hodori.
Ankei did not turn to face Kutamicha, walking away as he considered the conversation over. Kutamicha quickly chased after, placing his right hand on Ankei’s shoulder.
“The fuck you wa–” Ankei turned around and was immediately silenced by a left hook to the face from Kutamicha. Ankei fell to the ground, moaning in pain. Kutamicha then knelt down on top of Ankei, and delivered a second punch. And then a third.

Kuuka ended her recording and hid her phone as local security made their way to the garage. They pulled Kutamicha off the whimpering, bleeding pile that is Ankei Souzare to separate the two and end the one-sided fight. Ankei would be taken to the hospital, while Kutamicha was escorted to have a sit-down and talk with local authorities and WGPO officials.

Through the whole incident, the rest of ‘TACH GPC’ quickly and quietly removed all the markings on the least-damaged ‘good’ car indicating that Ankei was to drive it, and replaced them with Berezowska’s. Also gone was all of the HiTEN branding. Yaraza checked to ensure the paperwork the team had prepared was all in order.

As the start of practice drew closer and neither Kutamicha or Ankei had returned, the pit wall had to make adjustments. Replacing Kutamicha until and if he returned would be ‘Old Man’ Hakuran Mazaregi’s younger granddaughter, Sawano Mazaregi.

Yaraza met with the pit wall members, discussing an update on Ankei and what passed for their plan to usurp him. Due to a broken jaw among other injuries, and given his looming legal troubles, Ankei Souzare would be out for the remainder of the season, and with his departure, HiTEN.gpt would be renamed TACH GPC.

by **Tropicorp** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 12:28 pm

Tropicorp Storm Back with Île Saint-Joseph Victory

WGPC21 Supplier Performance Standings (After Week #7)
[1] - 142 :: Tropicorp Racing Supply
[2] - 129 :: Phoenician/InMotion
[3] - 106 :: Brimstone
[4] - 62 :: Solymok
[5] - 9 :: Blue Sulphurate

Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph, Circuit d'Arès, Île Saint-Joseph :: While the overall Supplier Performance Standings show significant gaps between each of the 5 suppliers competing in World Grand Prix Championship Season 21, there could perhaps be an alternative way of looking at things - The Ricky-Bobby way. While the Tropicorp Supplier Performance Standings consider each suppliers best performing entry at every Grand Prix weekend and assign points according to that finishing position, the Ricky-Bobby method would instead assign points only to the 1st place finisher. Of course, since only 1st place would get points, and 2nd place would be the same as last place, there really wouldn't be much point in awarding more than a single point for a victory. So, in summary, the Ricky-Bobby points system is nothing more than a count of total wins on the season.

Heading into the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph, Tropicorp Racing Supply was actually behind in that category. A victory by Ted Pressley in the Doubeinese Grand Prix then two races later, immediately following the Tropicorp Summit, Dario Nülkeschläger won the Grand Prix of Turori for the Tropicorp Customer supplied Pressley Racing team. Things had largely been going well for Tropicorp teams since the summit - at least as far as traditional scoring was concerned, but by the Ricky-Bobby scoring system, they may as well have been as bad as ever.

Heading into the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph, Tropicorp's two supplied wins on the season was equivalent to that of newcomer tyre supplier Brimstone. Rivals Phoenician/In-Motion already had 3 wins on the season if the Sprint Race counted as such and on those lines, even Solymok had joined in on the party Four of the Five suppliers had found their way to victory lane and considering they had no one left but the Motorworks team, it was no shame on Blue Sulphurate if they were unable to join the club by end of season.

There was something about the Circuit d'Arès that really suited the Tropicorp Tyre package. The Sifaka tyres were on the cars for the qualifying session and set things up brilliantly. Four of the Top 5 in qualifying were backed by Tropicorp Racing Supply, a total of Seven of the Top Ten starters on the Grid had the Orange stripe on the sidewall. In fact, Dario Nülkeschlager was the only Tropicorp Racing Supply affiliated entry who failed to qualify inside the Top 10 at Circuit d'Arès and even then he wasn't that far back in 14th, with still half the grid in their mirrors.

Things would have to change up on Raceday however, and any advantage that the Sifaka tyres had in qualifying would be put to the test when the Tropicorp Storm variant tyres were the rubber of choice on race day. A Rainy day on a track difficult to overtake on. It was the perfect set up for the Tropicorp drivers so long as the Storm tyres could do their job. Ultimately, the day would have to be considered a massive success. After entering with a gap in the standings having fallen off the lead, Tropicorp Racing Supply would pick up their third victory of the season, the second through Ted Pressley of Ælund Grand Prix and a ahuge points day in the Supplier Performance Standings with Phoenician/In-Motion struggling to imagine their way through the wet conditions and seeing only Pryfors Bilar driver Laura Haukanna hold on for 6th place points. It was the worst showing of the season for Phoenician/In-Motion with Haukanna crossing the line behind four Tropicorp Racing Supply drivers and one Brimstone driver as the Hapiloppan entity could now sense an opportunity to climb into the battle and challenge Phoenician/In-Motion for second place overall.

While the Tropicorp Storm variant tyre did at least enough to keep its drivers roughly in line where they qualified and Phoenician/In-Motion's wet weather offerings left something to be desired, it could certainly be said that the Brimstone Tyres surprisingly over-performed in the Wet conditions with Piers Ivchenko driver R.L. Cruisin advancing four places into a runner-up finish and Kinu Luminna moving up five places from their starting position to give Preston Autos a 7th place finish and a huge boost of momentum before their home Grand Prix in Hapilopper City. With a Brimstone driver leading the overall standings and the Supplier having climbed back to within a single races-reach of Phoenician/In-Motion it will likely be all hands on deck in Hapilopper City to ensure that Brimstone's debut season in the World Grand Prix Championship ends on a positive note and firmly established them as a mainstay and not a footnote of the WGPC Season 21 history page.

Tropicorp Supplier Performance 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.

Solymok Race of Gemischtvegyes, Wiesenblumering, Wiesenblume, Gergary :: For five consecutive Race Weekends, Tropicorp Orangeworks had placed a driver inside the Top 6. While the majority of the twii.tur Support Series teams had opted to go with Tropicorp Racing Supply for their tyres, the grid still had representation from both Phoenician/In-Motion and Solymok in a departure from the series previous all-spec rule book and as it came time for round number 9 the series would be heading deep into Solymok territory at the Wiesenblumering in Gergary. While the Solymok drivers were fastest in practice, Tropicorp drivers came thundering back in qualifying with Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian seen beaming all smiles stepping out of her MeowMeow Racing machine and winning pole position in just her second twii.tur Support Series event with teammate Tracie set to start right behind her on the grid in third position.

The race itself was an interesting affair that may not have ended as anyone had predicted. While it may not have been too much of a shock to see the pole sitter cross the line first and take victory just mere weeks after having been a full-time top-tier World Grand Prix Championship driver, it was still perhaps an uncommon position to see the name of Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian atop the podium after the struggles that she had suffered with Eminent Grand Prix prior to the teams ungraceful shutdown midway through the World Grand Prix Championship season.

The real surprise, perhaps, was behind where a number of Motorworks drivers played strategy on harder tyres and the gamble paid off with three drivers claiming their best finish of the season. As sister Motorworks teams it seemed there was some collaboration between VilBev Motorworks and Inura Motorworks who might have been able to place four drivers in the Top 5 if Inura's Rokksin Lavalhi hadn't been the races only retirement on Lap 21. While it wasn't a career best for Tomii'i Lopinka, the three-season veteran of the @OGP series and its successors, it certainly was for third place finisher Taavi Kiirejaavõistejä from Nykipiflugpuu and for 20-year-old Xianqingese driver Yang Xuzhen who used their personal finances to buy a seat with Inura Motorworks mid-season in an effort to get some experience driving something larger than a racing kart.

As for the Tropicorp Orangeworks drivers, it was not a performance to remember. While both finished in the points there were not many points to be had with Indori Volcanasaur collecting 6 for their 9th place finish and Igne Spupuo just 3 points for finishing in 12th position. Despite the mediocre results, the Chaos at the top of the podium meant there weren't many points to go around anywhere at the top of the drivers standings and the six points earned were enough to propel Indori Volcanasaur to the top of the twii.tur Support Series drivers standings. Things remained extremely tight at the top with 9 drivers within 25 points of the lead heading into Hapilopper City where driver's will just be hoping not to go viral on twii.tur with their own personalized version of "Oh Crap, there's a wall!". Igne Spupuo, a two time Grand Prix winner on during World Grand Prix Championship Season 20 and winner of one Grand Prix during the previous Support Series season is still searching for their first win of the current season knowing that if they can get it in Hapilopper City they will not only be positioned for a shot at the Drivers Championship but could help Tropicorp Orangeworks get their shot at the Constructors title as well.

Unfortunately for Volcanasaur and Spupuo, things currently seem to be all quiet on the Tropicorp front in the World Grand Prix Championship. After a quiet first half of the season, it would seem that the Silly Season has started early in the top tier of open wheel motorsports as since the mid season break teams have shut down, the grid size has been restructured and now, heading into Hapilopper City, it is rumored that as many as three drivers could be replaced for the final stretch, two of which could be within the Brimstone Racing family with a third at Solymok that may result in yet another driver change for ANMARA in the twii.tur Support Series. With the upcoming @OGP Hapilopper City Grand Prix running along side the World Grand Prix Championship it will be easy for teams to make last minute changes to their driver lineup without impacting the ability for drivers to compete in which ever series they are ultimately slated to drive for this week.

SKIIA VIALIV ✓

@Skiia
Was in great position starting in second place. I dont really have too much to say. We clearly aren't going for a championship at this point in the season so I tried to hang it out there and get the position to go for the lead and the victory that I felt would really be a shot in the arm for the team. Ended up hydroplaning it out of the groove and out of the points. I am glad we gave it a shot. It would have been worth the gamble if we wont it but we didn't, so now it just looks foolish. Oops.

#WGPC21 :: #SaintJoseph :: #ForzaHMG

INDORI VOLCANASAUR ✓

@IndoriV
Wow, with all these WGPC seats opening up, I feel like maybe there is an opportunity to step in one of these things just to go head to head with Money-bags von Visp just to end the debate once and for all. Of course, leading the standings here in the Support Series it probably wouldn't be a great career move to jump ship to another supplier and throw away a chance at a championship just to prove what we all know, Vincent von Visp is a terrible driver. At least he's worse than me, whatever that means.

#SupportSeries :: #WGPC :: #HapilopperCity

COCOABO PARK ✓

@CocoaboPark
Theres nothing Electric about it! Stop by the Cocoabo Park booth at the Hapilopper Grand Prix Course on Friday Afternoon and spin the fully mechanical Prize Wheel. The first 23 participants to Land on the special Cocoabo triangle will be invited to an afternoon reception that will include an appearance and photo opportunity with 'Fast' #Cocoabo23. The Prize team also has 50 of the hottest item in merchandising, the all-new Cocoabo Hoodie to give out to lucky winners. Everyone is a winner, smaller prizes will vary throughout the day and everyone who spins will also get a buy one - get one free voucher for tickets to Cocoabo Park, the educational resort where Cocoabo roam, train and inspire!

#WGPC :: #HapCity :: #PrizeWheel

(O.O) · by **TJUN-ia** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 12:33 pm

Race day in the Channel. And, as the locals say, il pleut. For this one day, the isolated fantasy setting known as Île Saint-Joseph would play host to the WGPC world...and on this race day, it was raining. Batu loved the rain out of the car, enjoyed the tranquillity it could bring, but dealing with it whilst racing was a different story, especially at a track as tight and unforgiving as the Circuit d'Arès. Rain on Sunday at this track was the one thing no driver wanted to see as everyone was going to be on their tiptoes for the entire race trying to ensure they don't fuck it all up and end up in the wall. Starting from P7 after a brilliant qualifying session, Batu knew that the rainy conditions added to the defensive advantage his WGPC Motorworks car would have on the road, but he knew all too well that wasn't a given at all. He did his part yesterday but now, he would have to finish the job.

Sitting in that car and during the formation lap, Batu poured over the task that was at hand. There were 20 cars behind him pointing towards the Saint-Joseph side of the border, and all Batu would have to do was ensure that no more than 3 passed him in this race. Do that, and some points would be heading his way and the way of Motorworks. Four or more would mean nothing, and another weekend of a great Saturday being followed by a collapse on Sunday. Batu had been through that pain for both Sprint Race weekends of this season since he stepped back up, and he was not interested in making it three from three. As he lined up for the start, he knew he couldn't fuck this up. Simple as that, he was not going to live it down if he srcewed this up. "No more than three. No more than three. No more than three."

The race got underway under the haze of spray and the roar of the crowds, both on the island and in the stands on the French side of the track. Amidst that spray, Nini Johnsilvaturr managed to get off the line better than the Mongolian and sent him into 8th at La Herse. That was not good, but for the rest of this race, Batu focused on his race craft and that alone. He had memorised every corner of this tight circuit at this point, and so he focused on keeping it clean, keeping the car planted on the track and making sure that he checked every three laps who was behind him and what the gap was. DRS was not going to help anyone pass in this race, but Batu wasn't taking any chances AT ALL and even during the pit stops, the status updates would keep coming all the way through the race. Towards the end, however, Batu got a new status update - instead of Nepö Kinder, the driver now directly behind him was race leader Ted Pressley in that yellow Ælund of his. He knew that soon enough, he would be blue-flagged and told to move out of the way of #88 and so when that call came, Batu did at Frontiére. But that ended up being a brilliant call as when Pressley took the chequered flag, the race was over. Ted wins over R.L. Cruisin and Abdoulaye Goita, Batu had barely noticed that Skiia Vialiv was down and Kinu Luminna had beaten him during the pitstops but that didn't fucking matter. It was done. It was over. Batu had ended TJUN-ia's year-long wait for WGPC points. Three points in the kitty for him and for Motorworks.

He may have only come home in 8th place in the grand scheme of things but back in the pit lane, that P8 felt like he had won the race. To be completely honest, he was crying a little bit - because that result had taken a lot of effort and pain just to achieve. Finally, this whole experience of missing the first three races of this season had been worthwhile. Those races in OGP had been worthwhile. Working with Pierre-Louis and Giancarlo and Naveen had been worthwhile. Batu was part of a fraternity now and to give that fraternity points on the board felt very rewarding. He got points out of the supposed weakest car. And Batu could celebrate that. But what he didn't know, what everyone didn't know, was that those points would be Batu's parting gift to the WGPC Motorworks.

*ring ring* *ring ring*

...

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

...uh...Wha-

*RING RING* *RING RING*

Oh....fuck! What...who's calling now, it's late?

*BEEP*

Hello?
Yeah, I'm awake. Just about? Everything OK?
What do you mean "things have changed"?

I'm sorry, what?
Kamado's out? KISMO wants to call me up?
Right now?

Holy shit, uh...is Motorworks OK with that?
They've greenlit it already?! What the fuck?!

Ok...uh...fuck, I don't know what to say!
This is a very good opportunity, but I don't want to feel like I'm abandoning the team, you know?
I like everyone here, it feels like a brotherhood down here.

But I also know this is an opportunity I can't miss out on.
ANMARA, to Motorworks, to KISMO? Three teams in one season?
That is certainly a tale to tell...but if KISMO think I can help, then...what's the point in saying no?

Ok. Tell KISMO I'm in. I'll rendezvous in the morning.

(Batu Tüvshinbayar accepts the offer from KISMO to race for them for the final three races of the season. He thanks WGPC Motorworks for the help they gave him to get him back on his feet.)

by **Former Citizens of the Nimbus System** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 1:43 pm

(OOC: With thanks to Hapilopper for some guidance as to the shape of events!)

Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit, Paulson, Hapilopper City, Hapilopper
Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix; Post-Practice

“Hey! It’s me, Olivia Stone again. I’m currently in the middle of preparations for the Hapilopper Grand Prix, but I’ve heard some news going around about the aftermath of the fallout of the They Crash, You Win contest.” She grins, which quickly turns to a grimace. “With the awful events of this morning, I’m under no illusions about how much traction this’ll get, but Baxen and I felt that something needed to be said.”

“As a brief reminder, we didn’t think They Crash, You Win was celebrating the risk of death in motorsport like some people did, just that it downplayed it way too far. We were worried about people treating racing drivers as a commodity, about us being used as entertainment at the expense of being allowed to be people – like I said then, that’s a line I’ll fight to stop us crossing. That’s why Baxen and I took action like we’d taken action throughout last season, to spark that debate. We let the motorsport community as a whole have their say, you all seemed to agree that it wasn’t right and it needed to change, and it did.”

“Now I know that, every time I go around that track, there’s going to be a proper barrier there rather than a giant symbol of how much less people care about me as a person than as an entertainment package. Shame they didn’t keep the mural but that was never made to last! So I’m not bothered by the Hapiloppian GP’s organisers putting extra security up around the track this season – Baxen and I only went out there because we knew exactly how a race event like this worked and how to keep ourselves safe, and that’s something plenty of people aren’t going to know.”

“What I am bothered by are these new contests I’ve heard about.” Olivia laughs, bleakness hollowing out the sound. “Because you’d have to be an idiot not to see what this is. ‘Olivia Stone Memorial Cup’,” she pronounces, chewing the words in her mouth. “You know what I said about this not being about celebrating the risk of death in motorsport? Well, more. Fool. Me.” Olivia grinds her teeth, lets out a puff of air. “Got to say, it’s really not nice to think about people literally wishing death on you for standing up for yourself and your peers, for a prize pool of all things. Whole thing is Maelstrom-damned misanthropic.”

“And of course, that’s not the end of it, because like I say, Baxen and I were only the spark. I remember vividly how impressed I was when Drake Stevenson and the Hapiloppian Racers’ Alliance led the charge to put pressure on HTN. They stated their position in far stronger and more unambiguous terms than we ever did, especially after Nexus Racing, who were otherwise almost completely uninvolved, got caught in the crossfire… Which makes it interesting that it’s only now that these contests are coming out and that the people being targeted are me and Nexus Racing. Can’t go after the Hapiloppian racers, that’d upset too many people, but those outsiders from the Wardship? Sure, they’re an easy mark! So not only is this whole thing misanthropic, it’s also cowardly. If you want to disagree with me that joking about drivers dying is somehow fine, sure, but maybe say it properly, to all of us, rather than playing at Paradox tactics.”

“Now, I’m told that the sponsor of these contests is a large supermarket chain that lost out on marketing from HTN. Unfortunate for them, of course, though seeing the rhetoric that HTN put out around the motorsports they covered, maybe it’s a lesson in choosing better partners. Don’t truly know enough about them to say. Regardless, they can rest assured: we’re too busy working with Cygnus right now to do anything like last year. Still, for motorsport fans in Hapilopper… Maybe spare a thought for this when you decide where you’re going next time for your weekly groceries.”

Olivia raises a hand in somewhere between a farewell and a salute. “See you all for Qualifying.”

And then she slumps against the inner wall of the motorhome. “Any good this time?”

“More than good enough, I think,” Baxen answers, not unkindly, as he lowers the camera and begins tapping to send it forth into the world.

Olivia nods tiredly. “Awesome.” I am so tired of fights I can’t win. “Imagination, I need… Agh, I don’t know. I need to be elsewhere.”

“I don’t suppose you’d mind if I join you?”

“So that you can save yourself from having to pick the leaves out of my hair this time?” She chuckles. “Sure, Baxen, I’d be glad.”

Now, where?

Her mind answers, plucking a tiny detail from the memory of a conversation two years ago with a certain Hapiloppian team principal…

Yeah. Yeah, that’ll do.

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6. Glimmer

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by **Turori** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 1:48 pm

Hapilopper City incites Early Start to WGPC Silly Season

Hapilopper Grand Prix Circuit, Hapilopper City, Hapilopper :: One would never expect any shortage of drama, excitement and carnage when any motorsports series rolls into Hapilopper City. Most expected that such drama this season would be limited to elderly drivers with paddock passes running around in Chicken Suits trying to rile up the Cocoabo or spicy sound bites of different drivers and team members voicing their opinions for or against the future of Electric Vehicles, not only in Hapilopper but in motorsports in general. Many may recall the failed attempts to kick off the e-GP series as a potential gap filler, or even replacement series for the World Grand Prix Championship that ultimately wound up instead an an odd way providing a boost to the NSSCRA Stock Car Series.

However as teams made their way to Hapilopper City it would soon become clear that sound bites on the future of Electric Vehicles in motorsports would be probably one of the least controversial or surprising topics after all. While security is supposedly "top notch" at the grounds of the Hapilopper Grand Prix course itself, unconfirmed reports of Electric Vehicle bombs going off throughout Hapilopper have certainly brought more than just whispers to the paddock. Then, there is the question of just who is going to drive in the race after all? Just mere weeks after the World Grand Prix Organization made the decision to expand the number of starting places available on the grid from 26 to 28 in an attempt to limit the number of Did-Not-Qualify drivers on a weekly basis, the series could be looking at the possibility of not having enough cars and drivers left on the grid to fill those 28 spots. With the possibility of having to exclude a driver from the grid due to failing to meet the 107% rule, it seems instead a major restructuring at HiTEN.gpt will save the WGPO from that ruling with Ankei Souzare being 'unable to compete due to injury' while the team will move forward at the Hapilopper Grand Prix Course under the TACH GPC moniker. Even beyond the Souzare drama, Silly Season appears to be starting unusually early in the World Grand Prix Championship paddock with a handful of changes already announced and even more teams are now looking to make changes before its too late - or simply to get a head start on the next World Grand Prix Championship season. By comparison, there had previously been no mid-season driver changes in World Grand Prix Championship competition since Season 17 when Race Eelandii VTGP introduced two future Motorsports Superstars as mid-season rookies: Hapiloppers future NSSCRA champion Drake Stevenson and current WGPC Ælund Grand Prix star Abdoulaye Goita. Goita had the first crack while driving for Race Eelandii VTGP during the mid-season non-points race while Stevenson would take over the race seat for three Grands Prix in place of Starblaydi veteran Jai Kardaeri before the former World Champion Driver returned to the cockpit to finish out the last two races of what would be their final World Grand Championship campaign.

After rumors have been growing since the mid-season, KISMO Racing appear to be ready to officially promote reserve driver Batu Tüvshinbayar into a primary race seat. After losing their WGPC drive when Orange Cow Racing chose not to return to the grid this season, the former WGP2 champion found themselves without a ride and instead driving part time in the twii.tur Support Series to start the season. By the time the circuit had gotten to Turori, Tüvshinbayar's representatives had negotiated a deal that would get the TJUN driver a seat with the WGPC Motorworks team and now, after having impressively put the under performing Motorworks car into the points at a challenging Circuit d'Arès, KISMO have made the call to kick out their home grown rookie driver Shuhei Kamado in favor of the foreigner with over a full season of WGPC experience under their belt. Kamado is still expected to compete in Hapilopper City by taking Tuvshinbayar's seat in the twii.tur Support Series, and if confirmed it woudl make Kamado the fourth different driver to participate in a TTGP event for ANMARA this season.

Perhaps an even more surprising rumor from the Paddock, however, is the fact that Piers Ivchenko may be ready to part ways with their rookie driver Nik Hazrin Lutfi. The Sharktail driver had developed a cult following within the Motorsports fandom with small sections of the grandstands arriving to the races in full sharksuit costumes to support Lutfi, who had established one of the best average finishes of any driver on the circuit this season despite failing to post a single Top 10 finish over the first seven rounds of the season. With Nini Johnsilvaturr picking up her first points for Pressley Racing over the past two weeks, Nik Hazrin Lutfi had moved into the unenviable position of having the greatest points deficit when compared with a teammate driver not just in the current season but in fact in the history of the World Grand Prix Championships, with the Sharktail driver currently having a greater points deficit (-85 Points) to teammate R.L. Cruisin than last seasons champion Brendan Faloe had amassed themselves over the course of their WGPC 20 Campaign (83). If Lutfi does end up being replaced before the end of the season it may provide relief in the form of a partial season asterisk next to any such point differential futility record they may have possessed. The list of potential replacements for Lutfi may be limited slightly by the partnership with Brimstone tyres while one promising driver, Doubinese Racing League champion Winston Klossovsky who has a victory already in the twii.tur Support Series is also unlikely to be considered due to having competed for one of Piers Ivchenko's rival teams on the Doubinese domestic circuit. One potential name being kicked around is Jjuko Okafor. The Banijan driver was not part of the pre-season signing frenzy but has since come forward with potential funding to finance their way into a World Grand Prix Championship seat. Okafor had attracted interest from the Tropicorp Racing Supply family and in particular Pressley Racing is rumored to have been looking at recruiting Okafor as a driver of the future, but Pressley and Tropicorp could miss out due to the lack of currently available seats on the grid - something that Piers Ivchenko and Brimstone may now have. If true, Piers Ivchenko would likely welcome additional funds to help supplement sponsorship funds to keep their unexpected championship push alive for R.L. Cruisin.

The long time Vilisorma Beverage Company backed driver did not comment on the situation within the Piers Ivchenko paddock when questioned about the possibility of a shake up at the team. With Cruisin and the team seeming to be on 'Cruise Control' the last few weeks with strong performances that have shot the veteran driver into the WGPC Drivers Championship lead with just three races to go in the season, it remains to be seen whether the uncertainty surrounding the teams second driver will prove to be a distraction for the team and their ability to keep their focus on their #1 driver and car. Typically it would seemingly be no problem for R.L. Cruisin to take a new driver under their wing and mentor them over the final three events of the season though as things stand the mentor-mentee relationship may take second priority to the championship fight. Should the team hire another rookie driver to finish out the season, it would be the 8th different driver that Cruisin will have raced along side in their debut World Grand Prix Championship Campaign, clearly a record of that type.

WIth the cars having yet to even take to the track in Hapilopper City, the race weekend that gave us "Oh Crap! There's a wall!" has already lived up to its reputation of chaos and confusion. One can only imagine what could come to fruition by the time the race weekend is over. With the Lizard King Igne Spupuo on hand for the twii.tur Support Series, rumors of new suppliers and teams already looking forward to next season could continue to bring news. Still to be determine is what fate will Urotovsky-Gatutin face and at what point will they decide whether they are going to keep this season's class of rookie drivers or once again start over from scratch just to line their pockets with some quick cash? Would all the teams, drivers and fans be safe within the confines of the Hapilopper Grand Prix Course and will Olivia Stone make it out alive after veiled threats toward the struggling Cygnus Racing driver who has already been eliminated mathematically from Championship contention this season.

None of the V&T Racer Local Drivers have previously won at the Hapilopper City Grand Prix course with R.L. Cruisin having a best finish of 3rd during WGPC Season 18 and iBen Toralmintii's only points finish at the track coming as a 7th place finish during WGPC Season 19. Toralmintii's teammate Cocoabo #23 also has a best finish of 7th place coming just last season and the Cocoabo driver will look for a repeat performance after first spending some bonus Cocoabo time as the Cocoabo Park education team is in town bringing a piece of Cocoabo Park to the fans and with it 3 specially trained Cocoabo who will educate by day and have the opportunity to socialize by night along with Race Eelandii driver 'Fast' Cocoabo #23.

R.L. Cruisin ✓

@Cruisin
Glad to be back in Hapilopper City and looking to keep up the momentum with this great PI team. I still remember the first time coming to Hapilopper City where we had a great run and finished in third place to be on the first ever Hapilopper City Grand Prix podium. Would be pretty neat to do it one more time for all the #Brimstone employees and supporters who have worked so hard to get this supplier onto the grid and to be competitive in the very first season on track.

#WGPC : #PiersIvchenko : #HapCity

by **Banija** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 1:53 pm

Jjuko Okafor, sitting at his agent's office in Aissa

Umar Adewale was [url=https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=42637429#p42637429]Reading his email- and his jaw was on the floor.[/url

"Jjuko- I know we were going to meet about you doing a PR event in Aissa. Forget all of that. New agenda."

"What the hell's going on?" Okafor responded. And then, Adewale showed him the email. "Holy fucking shit. Is this happening?"

"Are you blind kid?? Of course it's happening!"

"LET"S GO!" Okafor's voice boomed. The two men hugged. The office looked like chaos. All these various agents, who were generally working on other sports, were all hands on deck. Booking flights to Hapilopper. Trying to do PR. Doing sponsorship stuff. Adewale's email was short and sweet, but it was critical- Jjuko Okafor woudl accept the invitation to join the Piers Ivchenko team for the remainder of WGPC 21. What a time this was going to be.

by **Auruna** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 1:56 pm

Livonsk, Auruna

Ever since the costly corporate take over of Schkeska Racing where its old identity was swiftly swept under the rug, the team has been the source of an indescribable amount of drama and controversy. And most of it came from the ones who manage it, from the team principals for each discipline to the suits that are running the whole thing from the top and those people are the worst of them all. Never-ending drama, that wasn't a trend, it's tradition at this point. There was an unbroken line of eccentric, controversial figures who are now arrested or dishonourably retired, or at least suspected of something terrible. And they could still get away with most of it as they allegedly paid off the official of the Livonsk branch of the MNA. It got to the point where Schkeska's staunch supporters couldn't tolerate it, with the most notable example being Lauri Vorlen who was the Schkeska ARC team's top driver before being fed up with their bullshit and switching to VSK and Viska during his last few active driving years.

The Grey Wolf is not the same as the one beloved by many.

For long, no one had the power to do anything about Schkeska's blatant corruption. Many at the top of the MNA were in favour of the team for one obvious reason or another which resulted in Schkeska having unprecedented power over the MNA's affairs with the ones that didn't give in to Schkeska's temptation being the rally-focused MNA Nisko and MNA Karalinne. Still, Schkeska has significant control on the MNA's decisions for their own benefit. Notably, it allowed them to get away with stomping out or just straight up taking over their competition like the infamous Team Lipovana acquisition. This scared off smaller teams who then learned to be wise with who they teamed up with and this only pissed off Schkeska even more to the point of further madness.

Not even the bigger teams such as VSK, Viska and even the debatably tyrannical Krazivaran are safe.

While Schkeska kept getting away with their antics for years, after some leadership changes from many MNA branches, especially MNA Veratuna, they are slowly losing their control over the MNA and soon things became quite shaky for them. After being accused and eventually getting caught with sabotaging Sport Mikuren during their debut season in WSRC after replacing the unremarkable Schkeska WSRC team which resulted in a small investigation that uncovered more of what was going on behind the scenes. After a report about it was published, many people, especially the motorsports fans, were now becoming aware of Schkeska's actions and are now heavily criticising the giant racing firm.

Meanwhile, the new team principals of the Schkeska ARC and AEC teams announced that they are distancing themselves from the parent Schkeska Racing as they aren't involved in the controversies and didn't want to be related to the ones who did it. They had a choice of becoming independent while keeping the Schkeska name but ultimately decided on staying as their own racing branches but of Schkeska Motors, a completely separate entity from Schkeska Racing, for financial reasons.

But still, this wasn't the end as Schkeska attempted to continue their ways albeit more low-key. Well, after seeing the successes of VSK is WGP2 and Viska in WGPC, they wanted to have a piece of the pie even after their partnership ended with the two and the subsequent take over of the WGPC engine programme by Viska to form Re:Genesis. They argued that they should get a share of the teams' successes and accused Viska of manipulating their customer teams and while they had a strong case against Viska, it all fell apart as the MNA broke down their case with a large-scale investigation headed by the new head of the MNA and former driver, Lukas Ziuvin.

All the events drove the current Schkeska Racing CEO Iivo Märimähö and his supporters into madness resulting in a long unhinged rant over on various social media sites which only made things worse. Especially considering that there was a "meeting" over on MNA Sterlennau for a possible compromise between Viska and Schkeska in hopes to end the conflict attended by a Schkeska representative and Viska CEO Kiiro Sÿrenna but out of frustration, the Schkeska representative punched Kiiro in the face before being restrained by MNA staff. Kiiro was hurt but remained stoic as he commented with a disappointed sigh, "That's too bad."

After further investigation by the MNA, local law enforcement were finally involved and they were quick to work on the case. Primarily suspected of financial crimes, Iivo Märimähö limited his online activity to sparsely-spaced rants as he became recluse as evidenced by the confusion of several Schkeska staff after being questioned by authorities and the mass firing of Iivo's personal staff at his large Livonsk property.

During his descent into madness, Iivo posted that he was ready to "rally his supporters and fight back for what is right" which promptly alerted the Federal Police IRIS-7 police tactical unit and the National Army Reserve of Livonsk and Iivo was then thought to be armed and dangerous. While Iivo believed that he was safe in his isolation, IRIS eventually tracked him down and put his mansion under siege alongside the local police forces before he could even move.

Army reservists were on site just in case the situation got worse. "All this for one person?" Racing driver Haru Jukkenna commented as he, as well as other reservists near the site were hastily called in to support the police units.

By nightfall, IRIS operators breached into Iivo's mansion, swiftly clearing rooms left and right until they reached the room where Iivo was believed to be hiding in. After breaking through the door, IRIS operators finally reached Iivo who, in his paranoid state, jumped out of his hiding spot in shock from the sudden entry, dropping his "weapon", which was actually an airsoft rifle, in the process. IRIS operators promptly restrain him without much trouble.

But that wasn't the end as other Schkeska Racing and MNA Livonsk officials also have warrants for their arrest. While some complied without a fight, others were not so lucky after sustaining some injuries during their resistance. All within the span of two days.

While the suspects were primarily charged with financial crimes, several other, objectively darker secrets were eventually uncovered that added on to the list of their charges with Iivo having the worst ones of the lot.

As the dust settled, Schkeska Racing was left in shambles as the MNA took action. An MNA official was appointed to run Schkeska for the time being which puts the teams under it well within the MNA's control temporarily. There was a significant restructuring conducted to the entire operation. The teams' high-level racing permits were temporarily suspended or transferred to more promising teams and their MNA funding cut off. Team Lipovana was finally freed from Schkeska's shackles, while Schkeska ARC and AEC were safe from the aftermath and all were given compensation for all the trouble that happened.

Although, Viska still had to pay for all the inconveniences. While Lukas Ziuvin offered to pay their fines, Kiiro decided that it was the perfect time for rest of the money they received from Preston to be put in to good use. And not long after, they were granted additional funding for their WGPC team, endorsed by Garnell Tävonte. Even though it wasn't much compared to what they had, Kiiro was still thankful.

Meanwhile, some MNA Livonsk staff suspiciously retired without much reason given but it eventually led to a change of management to a more reasonable one.

Even though it finally ended before it took too long, everyone involved was significantly hurt by it, and in Kiiro's case, literally. It is going to take some time for them to recover as the whole event was draining mentally, physically, and financially.

Hopefully this was the last of the big controversies that the MNA has. Hopefully.

Aurun Folktale, translated from Aurun
As the wolf laid in the snow, the Nelikari arrived to see its soul. The four foxes circled around, playfully hopping, telling the wolf to follow the glow. Upon reaching the edge, the four turned to one and began judging if the wolf is allowed to go.

Burdened by regret, the wolf pleaded but it wasn't enough. The Nelikari plucked a clean fragment from the wolf's soul before sentencing it to an eternity of flame and pain. Suffering, he ended up in even after its pleas during the fall. A darkened soul will not allowed to roam kiretäriinä for such corruption shall be condemned to the Väälehättäinä.

The Nelikari then gave the clean fragment of the wolf to the god of creation. Hopeful, it was then formed into a new wolf. The reborn spirit, free from the betrayal and corruption of its former self, sought to reunite with its friends whether they accept it or not.

But to get there, the new wolf shall first conquer the blizzard alone.

by **Liventia** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 2:47 pm

CUTOFF

for Practice and Qualifying at Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit

by **Liventia** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 2:49 pm

Week 13: Practice

Conditions:      	Cloudy
Lap Record:      	00:01:28.535
Session Length:		75 minutes
Nation:         	HAP
Circuit:        	Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit

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

POS # ▍DRIVER                                               	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 27 ▍Dario Nülkeschlager                                  	00:01:36.210	00:00:00.000
 2 22 ▍Nini Johnsilvaturr                                   	00:01:36.236	00:00:00.026
 3 94 ▍Ryker Lane                                           	00:01:36.315	00:00:00.105
 4 89 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                                      	00:01:36.327	00:00:00.117
 5 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii                                     	00:01:36.382	00:00:00.173
 6 33 ▍Sam Blaatschapen                                     	00:01:36.401	00:00:00.191
 7 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                                       	00:01:36.430	00:00:00.220
 8 96 ▍William Archer                                       	00:01:36.437	00:00:00.227
 9 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                                          	00:01:36.438	00:00:00.228
10 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                                      	00:01:36.449	00:00:00.239
11 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel                                      	00:01:36.476	00:00:00.266
12 12 ▍Ron Sommer                                           	00:01:36.549	00:00:00.339
13 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                                         	00:01:36.570	00:00:00.360
14 82 ▍Kinu Luminna                                         	00:01:36.654	00:00:00.444
15 88 ▍Ted Pressley                                         	00:01:36.678	00:00:00.468
16 11 ▍Jjuko Okafor                                         	00:01:36.744	00:00:00.534
17  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                                    	00:01:36.746	00:00:00.536
18 55 ▍Gil Langdon                                          	00:01:36.761	00:00:00.551
19 66 ▍Vincent Von Visp                                     	00:01:36.777	00:00:00.567
20 95 ▍Hanna Berezowska                                     	00:01:36.986	00:00:00.776
21 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                                         	00:01:36.995	00:00:00.785
22 63 ▍Nepö Kinder                                          	00:01:37.179	00:00:00.969
23 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick                                   	00:01:37.377	00:00:01.167
24 85 ▍Olivia Stone                                         	00:01:37.712	00:00:01.502
25  1 ▍Brendan Faloe                                        	00:01:37.851	00:00:01.641
26 91 ▍Naveen Kalkar                                        	00:01:37.859	00:00:01.649
27 84 ▍Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                          	00:01:38.136	00:00:01.926
28 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer                                  	00:01:39.264	00:00:03.054

Week 13: Qualifying

Conditions:      	Light Showers
Lap Record:      	00:01:28.535
Qualifying Type:	Traditional
Nation:         	HAP
Circuit:        	Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit

POS # ▍DRIVER                                               	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 55 ▍Gil Langdon                                          	00:01:38.409	00:00:00.000
 2 89 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                                      	00:01:38.473	00:00:00.064
 3 63 ▍Nepö Kinder                                          	00:01:38.525	00:00:00.116
 4 22 ▍Nini Johnsilvaturr                                   	00:01:38.551	00:00:00.142
 5 84 ▍Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                          	00:01:38.577	00:00:00.168
 6 82 ▍Kinu Luminna                                         	00:01:38.590	00:00:00.182
 7 94 ▍Ryker Lane                                           	00:01:38.613	00:00:00.204
 8 12 ▍Ron Sommer                                           	00:01:38.626	00:00:00.217
 9 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                                         	00:01:38.772	00:00:00.363
10 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                                         	00:01:38.773	00:00:00.364
11 88 ▍Ted Pressley                                         	00:01:38.817	00:00:00.408
12  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                                    	00:01:38.837	00:00:00.428
13 96 ▍William Archer                                       	00:01:38.919	00:00:00.510
14 66 ▍Vincent Von Visp                                     	00:01:38.922	00:00:00.513
15  1 ▍Brendan Faloe                                        	00:01:39.026	00:00:00.617
16 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                                      	00:01:39.128	00:00:00.719
17 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                                          	00:01:39.150	00:00:00.742
18 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii                                     	00:01:39.256	00:00:00.847
19 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick                                   	00:01:39.282	00:00:00.873
20 11 ▍Jjuko Okafor                                         	00:01:39.563	00:00:01.154
21 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                                       	00:01:39.572	00:00:01.163
22 27 ▍Dario Nülkeschlager                                  	00:01:39.573	00:00:01.164
23 95 ▍Hanna Berezowska                                     	00:01:39.707	00:00:01.298
24 91 ▍Naveen Kalkar                                        	00:01:39.745	00:00:01.337
25 85 ▍Olivia Stone                                         	00:01:39.956	00:00:01.547
26 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel                                      	00:01:40.359	00:00:01.950
27 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer                                  	00:01:40.710	00:00:02.302
28 33 ▍Sam Blaatschapen                                     	00:01:42.485	00:00:04.076

by **Katzeburg** » Sat Apr 19, 2025 2:28 am

KISMO Headquarters
Serizawa, Aji No Moto

Gil Langdon hadn’t been spending much time willingly at the KISMO headquarters as of late, but today felt a bit different. The team was in inquest mode, as once again they failed to secure any points in Ile Saint-Joseph. Gil had done the better of the two KISMO drivers - finishing 16th, just ahead of Ron Sommer but well outside of the points - leaving the team languishing towards the bottom of the rankings. With Batu Tüvshinbayar already the backup in waiting for Kissan, their performances must have done enough to give the team options heading into the final few races of the season. For Gil’s thinking, his seat had to be safe at this point - he had already put the car on pole once, secured a podium finish and to date scored 24 of KISMO’s 28 points so far this season. But that doubt lingered at the back of his mind.

Katzeburgian tabloids had been hinting that his father, logging magnate Archie Langdon, was on the verge of pulling his sponsorship of the team and Gil specifically, something which would no doubt throw a spanner in the works of both KISMO’s planning and Gil’s WGPC future. But nothing was set in stone yet, so as Gil walked through the halls of the KISMO headquarters in Serizawa, he knew he didn’t have to outrun the bear which would devour his racing career; he merely had to outrun Shuhei Kamado.

Gil leant up against a wall and took a quick look around the halls of the KISMO team, taking in the activity; scanning for a sign of Kamado or either of the senior leadership within the team - Hiromu Sugiyama and Kousuke Kasai - to see if a decision had been made one way or the other. There was a distinct buzz in the air - various engineers and team members rattled the hall awash in rumours.

“Have you heard? Kamado is finished, he’s being sent down to WGP2 - they’re having the meeting to cut him after the Hapilopper race.”

“I’ve heard that the media relations team has been prepped to announce that both Kamado and Langdon are going and KISMO is pulling up two racers for the rest of the season to see if anyone can do anything in the car.”

“Apparently Kamado is being promoted into team ownership? Seems like some of his racing team are confident that he’s being boosted up rather than thrown out.”

“Just got a text from my brother-in-law; apparently his mate who knows a mate who knows another mate who is a taxi driver said he just picked up Ted Pressley at the airport and is bringing him down to the headquarters to sign as the new lead driver with a few races left.”

Gil sighed and smacked the back of his head against the wall. Nobody knew shit. He had to find out directly. Thankfully, luck was on his side today; out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Kamado striding down the hall to the left of him, with Sugiyama and Kasai a couple of steps behind in tow. Has the news already been made? Or are they leading Kamado to the firing squad? He didn’t have time to mull it over, he began to slowly waltz his way over towards where the three had went, spotting them ducking into a small meeting room just down the hallway. Flicking his head around to make sure the coast was clear, Gil slowly crept up to the edge of the doorway leading into the meeting room. The soundproofing at the KISMO Headquarters was solid, but not infallible. He could hear only piecemeal parts of the discussion going on behind closed doors.

“....lineup…remainder…ensure…you in next season’s…still in for Hapilopper…”

Gil tried to piece together what he had heard as he crept away from the door. To him and the understanding of the meeting he had just eavesdropped on, it sounded like they were keeping Kamado. Keeping the underperforming rookie with a promise to back him heading into next season as well. Gil was stunned. Of course, had he only stayed a moment more, he would have seen Shuhei Kamado come out visibly upset, distraught that his first chance at the WGPC had gone up in flames. Had he stayed a moment more, Gil Langdon would have known that it wasn’t in fact him which was being dropped, but his teammate.

But it was too late for that. Gil was off down the hallway as he knew the axe would be dropping on him. By the sounds of it, he still had one more race. One more chance to impress before the lights went out. He had to show up in Hapilopper.

Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit
Hapilopper City, Hapilopper

Ron Sommer was staring into the void. Or more accurately, the sprawling canvas that was Hapilopper City as dark clouds began to roll over the Esportivan hub. It might as well have been the endless black cosmos for all Ron could care - as much as he would love to be out exploring the city, he had other things to turn his attention to.

“It’s purely precautionary at this point, you have to understand Ron,” came a voice over the line. It was the voice of the Sommer family lawyer, Mattias Vinter. The Sommer’s were normally the type of family which didn’t require a lawyer to begin with; the only time Ron or his parents had sought real legal advice was when the Sommers were buying their house on the outskirts of Waldstein, and even then, Trevor had been adamant he could manage the bulk of the transaction himself.

“How hard can it be?” Trevor remarked one day after angrily running his eyes over the quotation of work. “What even is a house key administration fee? Or Skirting Board Legislation Checks? Disputed Neighbour Zone? What the hell is that?”

It took Ron’s mother several hours of not only calming the Sommer patriarch down but also explaining that the mere fact he had no idea what any of those terms meant was probably a good idea as to why he shouldn’t be in charge of the legal aspects of the sale. And so they had landed on Vinter, a lawyer who ran his own practice in the Waldstein city centre, and Trevor had taken an immediate shine to him. The two were mostly of very different worlds - Trevor was a blue-collar man who loved a good barbeque and a hearty slapping of gravy, while Mattias was what you’d expect from a high-flying white collar lawyer. Well-dressed, constantly reading the latest financial news and trades, and incredibly well-educated. But the two bonded quickly about one thing - racing.

There was something universal about the thrill of watching things go fast that drew in people of all shapes and ages, and Mattias and Trevor would often spend hours talking about the world of motor sports, birthing a brilliant friendship which has lasted well past the initial retainer to get the house sorted. Mattias had been by the family’s side in one way or another since, watching Ron go from a young kid tearing it up on the small karting circuits to winning the Katzeburgian Qualifier and even cutting short a client meeting to rush to a television to watch Ron win his first ever race in Patriotlandia. But the call they were now on was not one of joy or pleasure. Mattias was calling Ron ahead of the Hapilopper GP to talk about the future of the family, and his father’s continued care. Since his heart attack after the Patriotlandia race, Trevor Sommer had been in hospital in Waldstein in not incredible condition. The years of manual labour and physical tolls had taken a hit on him, and while he was out of immediate danger, his condition hadn’t majorly improved to the standard needed.

While Katzeburg’s healthcare system was robust and universal, the fact of the matter was Trevor needed to migrate to home care sooner rather than later or move to another hospital in the nation’s capital of Katzestadt, as Waldstein was not the largest in the region and bed space was a premium at times. However, Ron’s mother had objected to moving him elsewhere because of the strain it would put on the support network, especially given the difficulties in travelling to and from Katzestadt from Waldstein. Mattias had stepped in to line up private healthcare for Trevor at the city’s private hospital, which will provide great care and allow Trevor more time to recover, and Ron had been willing to pay for the bulk of treatment with his Viska rookie salary. But Mattias was also insistent on one other piece of the puzzle - ensuring Trevor Sommer had a valid will.

“Now, I’m not saying it will happen, but with your father in the condition he is in, we need to prepare for this as a possibility,” Mattias said. “It doesn’t even need to be anything too significant, just a short document stating his estate will go to your mother and yourself for the most part. But we just need to make sure that it’s there to begin with.”

“I know, I know,” Ron said, pacing around the small room in the Viska cabin which had been set up for the team to prepare for activity in Hapilopper. “It’s… It’s just, I don’t want to think about that eventuality, you know? My dad is going to be fine - he’s getting the best care we can afford and he’ll never give up.”

“I understand that, Ron. Believe me, I know better than anyone the struggles your dad has put in to open doors, not just for him and his wife, but you as well. I’m just suggesting we protect and enshrine that so if we ever get to that stage, everything is accounted for. It’s for his benefit.”

“I don’t even know what assets my dad would own to be fair,” Ron said stiffly. “Only the house? But I think it’s still under mortgage for a few more years as most of the money went into my racing.”

“At the moment it’s just breaking down broadly what is his,” Mattias said. “We can broadstrokes attribute percentages of his overall estate to people, and then come back to that when we have a better idea of what assets are his alone.”

“Ok, ok. Let’s do that then, but mum will need to see the draft copy so she can put it through to dad, he’s going to have a fit when he sees that we’ve pulled a will together for him. ‘Are you trying to finish me off?’ he’ll say.”

“It’s for the best, he’ll understand that.”

Ron paused, cautiously choosing his wording. “How… How is he? I’ve not been able to get back to Waldstein since before the last race over in Ile Saint-Joseph, and he’s not in the right frame yet to really grasp anything other than in person visits.”

“He’s doing alright. He’s a fighter, as you said. I was over there yesterday and he only had one thing on his mind - how you were doing ahead of your return to Esportiva,” Mattias chuckled.

“That’s dad alright,” Ron said with a faint smile. “Please tell him I’m thinking of him next time you see him, yeah?”

“Of course. How are you feeling? Big weekend in Hapilopper coming up I imagine.”

“Yeah, fine thanks - It’s just a lot tougher than I was expecting being this far away from Dad in his time of need.”

“He’d want you to go out there and smash things on the track first and foremost, I’m sure.”

“Maybe - Maybe another win might help him recover a little more? Or kill him, most likely given what happened the first time.”

“It’s not your fault Ron, don’t beat yourself down over the timing.”

“I’m not,” Ron bristled. “I just… It’s just a lot. Viska have been fantastic in supporting me, but it’s hard to button down and focus, as much as I’d like to given his condition seems to not be changing one way or the other.”

“Think you’ll stay with them?”

“Viska? If they give me that option, I’d be all for it - I’m so thankful for everything they’ve done, not only just giving me than moonshot at a grid spot to begin with, but the team is a wonderful place to be around.”

“Well, let’s hope some of those rumours out of Auruna don’t tend to be true in that case then.”

“Rumours?”

“All that around the MNA and the fines which were thrown down in the wake of what happened with Schkeska.”

“Can’t say I’ve heard too much around that to be honest - but do know that some of the senior leadership were a bit busier than normal this last week or so, imagine it has to do with that? As long as it doesn’t impact the team on race day, then it’s no skin off my back.”

“Indeed. Well, I’ll go get this prepared and let you know when we’ve put it in front of your mother. But Ron? Please take it carefully out there, I know how difficult of a time this can be for people - with the pressure of racing I imagine it’s close to unbearable.”

“It certainly feels like that.”

Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit
Hapilopper City, Hapilopper

Gil always enjoyed city circuits. There was just something about fast cars weaving in and out of everyday buildings, the weight of danger looming large as one mistake, one moment of weakness, could see you crash at blinding speed into someone’s local convenience store or in one particularly ironic memory of the Katzeburgian racing circuit - into the offices of a local MP who continued to insist that city circuit racing would lead to no damage to buildings; one collapsed roof later, he quickly changed his tune. He especially loved it when it was raining. There was just something magical about the atmospheric drops of rain which make their way down the buildings and the small pools of water which tend to huddle together on some of the poorer surfaced sections of track. Hapilopper City was no exception, the light shade of grey everything was dipped in had a distinct beauty to it, with the rainclouds shining themselves onto the large windows of the city providing those rocketing around the track with a wonderful sight, even if they could only spot it for a split second.

But as Gil was gunning down towards Chicken Bone Alley, he was tapping into a feeling he hadn’t experienced much during his rookie WGPC season - that of joy. Joy of the race. Joy of just being behind the wheel and going fast. He had a huge smile on his face as he whipped down through the alley and into the Triple Diamond Chicane, as if a huge weight had been lifted off of him. And it had to a degree. Since overhearing the decision to cut him loose after Hapilopper, Gil had stuck his head down and just worked hard; arguably the hardest he had ever worked. If this was to be his final swansong on the WGPC circuit, then he was going to go one better than he did in Patriotlandia. He was going to win the whole fucking thing.

He stuck hours into the simulator, testing the limits of himself and the Hapilopper City circuit, only resurfacing once he found himself starting to fall asleep at the wheel from exhaustion. He had spent so little time focusing on the wider world in the lead up to qualifying, that he barely noticed the ongoing changes in the KISMO garage. He noted he hadn’t seen Kamado so far, but did note that Batu was in and around the garage, having friendly chats with various team members. Must just be prepping to jump in and get going from the next race, Gil thought to himself. Fair enough, but a bit rude to do it so directly in my face. But Gil had to shrug it off; he couldn’t afford anything derailing him this weekend. Not now that it was the end for him.

Gil powered down the final straight, curling to the right ever so slightly to whip his maroon KISMO over the finish line - he had done all he could, but he could feel the toll of what this weekend had taken on him already. He was beat. That cocky kid who came into WGPC expecting the world had been chewed up, spat out and is now coming out of the other side of it as someone who will go down as an obscure trivia question (albeit probably not in Katzeburg due to the rather stringent laws around quizzes) whose sole contribution to the top flight of motor racing in the multiverse was a single pole position and a bottle job podium finish. He began the process of slowing down and drifted his mind towards returning the car safely back to the garage, ensuring that no matter where he started down the grid, he would give it one last red hot go to get into the points and end on a high. Gil was so many miles away mentally that he barely heard the rapturous celebrations screaming down his headset radio.

“Gil you absolute legend, that’s P1 again! P1! Well done!” came the voice of his race engineer over the radio. But Gil wasn’t listening. He glided around McLaughlin’s and was thinking about what he could do as a career post-WGPC. Maybe I could be a reporter, Gil thought to himself. Could be fun travelling around the world writing? Would have to learn how to spell some of the words I’d never write down though, could be a bit of a challenge.

Finally, the KISMO slid into the pit lane, Gil quickly being snapped back into reality by an immediate mobbing of his maroon car with a wave of teammates losing their minds. Gil lifted himself up out of his car and stretched, with many team members mistaking this for a group hug. He quickly found himself onrushed - a stark difference to the more muted reaction upon his first pole in Patriotlandia.

“What’s going on?” Gil said aloud. “We’ve still got the race itself before you can all say your goodbyes.”

“What are you talking about?” came one reply. “Were you even listening to your radio? You’re on pole Gil!”

“What?” Gil twisted his head and pushed his way through the crowd to find a monitor, only to spot his name once more in lights at the top of the leaderboard. A large smile began to creep across his face. He was to be on pole for his final race. One final opportunity to show not only KISMO, but all the other teams on the grid just what they’d be missing. One final shot at a race win and everlasting glory.

by **Tumbra** » Sat Apr 19, 2025 12:58 pm

Île Saint-Joseph

Somehow winning the second time felt slightly less special than his first — the same could probably be said for his second encounter with Janne those years ago — but it still felt good to be back on the top step after his harrowing crash in Turori. Kind words were shared with RL Cruisin, who probably had at least five times the WGPC races he'd done, but most of the celebrations were reserved for Abdoulaye and Terho, who'd been picked to receive the constructor's trophy.

Could anyone interlope into the title fight at this point? Ted found himself staring at the driver's championship standings on his phone into the night. Scrolling, obsessively reading bios, phone far too close to his face for comfort or good health. Dario Nülkeschlager had been on for a decent finish right until his gearbox gave. Abs would probably want a chomp at the title of his own, and a well-placed podium finish or win could catapult him into the middle of the fight. Not that his adopted country would care, anyway; they were much more focused on Vincent von Visp, whom Ted had wisely kept out of the way of thus far. Laura Haukanna was probably being held back by her team-mate, who was the only non-Motorworks driver to have started races and not scored points. Perhaps, if Pryfors Bilar decided their time in the series would be cut short, Pressley the team could...

With seventy-five points still on the line, only a handful of drivers had properly been eliminated; even Hanna Berezowska in the deathtrap known as the HiTEN was technically still in it with her eight points. Then his mind settled on the driver in fifth; a certain Abovian, whom Ted was so convinced he would end up in a title battle to the death (well, maybe not death — it wasn't the 60s anymore), was now 32 points behind him. Again, like Abs' situation, a well-placed win and a blank for both him and Cruisin could catapult him back into the title race; but he couldn't help but feel that with how temperamental the Nexus car could be, it was going to be a desperate shot for Janne to get back in the title race.

Oh well. At least for Janne and Lane — the good one, who'd actually won a championship, and not the other one — they could still hope to beat Ælund in the constructors' championship.

Ted groaned as he sat up, the alcohol making his head pound. He couldn't sleep. He'd heard that the hotel had a sauna; it was time to make use of it.

Hapilopper

It was a week later, and everything was somewhat okay again. The two were celebrities, now; they'd needed to don hoodies, glasses, and in Ted's case, a false beard, to go anywhere that was in Hapilopper City. And now that they were attempting to do something vaguely romantic, it was even harder. Being racing drivers in a country whose main passion was watching cars thwack the exhausts out of each other proved to be somewhat of an occupational hazard in this situation. It always felt like there was something in the water; and it seemed to have gotten to the WGPC grid, too.

Broken jaws, driver switches...a Turorian news outfit had deemed it "silly season starting early," but as far as things were concerned for Ælund and Pressley — the latter of which he'd begrudgingly come to fall in love with again, even if driving for them was probably going to be a step too far for at least half a decade — it was relative calm on their seas. Dario and Nini had been offered new contracts, Sophie hadn't shown any interest in the vacant seats that had popped up — and if she'd shown any interest in driving for Deathtrap Racing Team, he would've immediately vetoed it — and seemed perfectly content just to be a reserve driver in case something happened.

As for him? He'd probably have to talk to Terho about a new contract soon.

He sipped from his drink — appropriately, for Grand Prix week, it had been sexed up and given some car-themed name he'd already forgotten — and tried his best not to get any on his false beard. Christ, how did Terho manage to not turn his into a mini ecosystem?

"You got some on the side of your mouth."

It had been Ted's turn to initiate; they'd been to this cafe before, for one of their surreptitious dates, but this was back when Ted was a midfield driver extracting everything from his backmarker car, and when Janne was still bright-eyed and settling into his new drive at Nexus. And it felt like he had to do something; the funeral had only strengthened his resolve to be more...pliable, and less stoic, and Janne was probably still beating himself up a bit inside for the crash. There was probably something that happened in the sauna, too? But his memory had been so blurred by the post-race celebrations — the last thing he really remembered was an attempt to pour some alcohol into the trophy and drink from it before it was gently wrested away from his eager hands — that he didn't really recall it anymore.

"Thanks," Ted smiled as he took a serviette and wiped away some of the foam.

"You look ridiculous, by the way."

"What, don't think I've got the jawline for it?"

"No, I just..."

"Not used to it, then? You should look at those —" he put on an exaggerated twang "—Ness-kra drivers. They get away with anything."

"Yes, but we're not 'Nesskra' drivers now, are we," replied Janne, annoyance flickering on his face.

"Would you ever consider a career in NSS—" Ted began asking, and then demurred from finishing his question when he saw Janne's look. "Alright, alright, just making conversation..."

"Would you?" Janne shot back, seemingly presenting it as a sort of dealbreaker if Ted had said yes.

"God, no," Ted said as he sipped. "You'd need to wrestle me into a car before I threw it around those ovals at whatever speed unit they use here. Plus, double-jobbing isn't exactly my sort of thing. Someone trying to double-job was what got me into this seat, anyway. In a way." Another sip. "No, I'd much rather — you know, there was a movie I once watched, had to deal with racing. And the main character somehow ended up in some town in the desert, and their main love interest? She ran a hotel where the rooms were like, giant traffic cones. I would love to do that, actually. A racing-themed hotel. Run by a former racing driver."

He put down his cup, which was now half-drained, and looked back up to an absolutely befuddled Janne, who seemed to not have followed whatever had dribbled out of Ted's mouth but had somehow assumed the quality of interpretable words and speech.

"What."

"I'm just saying, you know?"

"I think wearing the beard's made you as crazy as any guy out there."

"No, it's just — what did they put in here again? Like three shots of espresso? It's good, it is, you know, I could see myself —" Ted held up a finger and drained another quarter of the cup.

Janne shrugged. "You were the one who ordered."

"So anyway, I —"

A loud boom emanated in the distance and their saucers vibrated on the table. Janne flinched slightly; Ted drained the last dregs and then put down his cup.

"You heard that?"

"Y-yeah."

Almost immediately their phones went off, buzzing with notifications. He only took a glance at one, from Terho: "Respond ASAP once you see this. Get back to the circuit now if you can, please."

"What the fuck," was all Ted could say as he looked up from his phone at Janne, who looked similarly worried. "You alright?"

Another explosion. This time Janne looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here; Ted immediately got up.

"Come on. We've gotta go."

Hapilopper City Grand Prix Circuit

The circuit was abuzz with tension as people, mostly from within the WGPC circus, streamed back onto the premises; lengthy security checks meant that the wait to get back onto the grounds took a very long time. By now, all on-track events had been cancelled; Ted vaguely recalled he was due for a meet-and-greet with some lucky fans, but that was presumably off the schedule now. Were there even any Ælund fans in Hapilopper, anyway?

By now, the false beard and ridiculous sideburns had been discarded; and the two of them were waiting in line. Nobody really paid them as much mind here; there were thirty — or twenty-eight, or whatever number it had dropped down to after all the changes this season — but this also meant there was no priority line for them. Unless...

A twinge of guilt crossed his mind as he stared down at his pass. Was it finally time to embrace the part of him he'd been running away from for some time? He caught the eye of a burly security guard, who ambled up to the two of them.

"Yeah?"

"Listen, I'm kind of in a bit of a hurry here — is there any way that we —"

"Yeah, everyone is, good sir," the security guard said kindly. "Gotta wait."

"Yeah, and, well," he flashed his pass. "You see, I'm the part-owner of one of the teams, and I'd like to make sure that all my personnel are alright."

The security guard sighed. "Alright. You with him?" He motioned toward Janne. The security guard seemed to be the only person alive who didn't recognise the two drivers.

"Yeah," Ted said, a bit more steel in him now. They were quickly led to a side gate, hurriedly pat down, and let in.

"Thanks," Janne smiled as they shared the shortest of moments. "Now go." He started half-jogging towards the Nexus motorhome, and Ted sighed as he began the stride to Ælund's. On the way he passed Pressley's motorhome; a small posse of assembled media surrounded Jack Brook, the Pressley team principal. Ted slowed his stride, hoping to hear some parts of it while not being noticed.

"— not entirely sure what's going on, but I have absolute faith that we'll be able to get the race going on Sunday. No, I don't have much of an inkling of the wider situation, but I doubt they're targeting us. No, we're not leaving or withdrawing. Why would we? If other teams want to go, they can go, but we'll be the last of them to."

A pause, presumably for an inaudible question.

"Targeting a team? I don't think we can count it out. I don't think anyone would target us here, but I think a team or two could use some extra protection this weekend. After all, if the reports that the cars that exploded were electric cars, then maybe the one team on the grid which uses a lot of that should watch out..."

Ted's heart sank. There was only one possible team Jack could be referring to.

by **Hapilopper** » Sat Apr 19, 2025 1:23 pm

OFFICIAL STATEMENT
FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF HAPILOPPER

Good evening. We have investigated the two mysterious vehicle fires and explosions in Hapilopper City. One was located in front of the home of MP Warren Jones while the other was located in front of my official residence. While we are massively relieved that no casualties resulted from either of these explosions, law enforcement has pointed us in a certain direction concerning what happened.

I say that to say this: We have enough evidence to prove that the acts that occurred today were acts of terrorism. Specifically, the acts were conducted by a party visiting Hapilopper for Grand Prix weekend. We believe the motive of this act was concerning the electric vehicle ban in Hapilopper. I spoke against the ban and vetoed it. MP Jones staged a filibuster that ran out the clock on overriding the veto. There are certain parties that expressed dissatisfaction with the fact the ban did not come into place, and we will be investigating specific leads. For reasons of security, we will not discuss those leads. The only thing we will say, though, is that we will be working with the World Grand Prix Organization in securing the area and helping us with identifying and speaking to persons of interest. There are also cameras around my residence, and we believe we have information in finding the person responsible for the carbomb near my residence.

To be clear, we do not believe any Hapiloppians were involved in these car bombings. And to be clear, we believe this was an act attempting to change our minds concerning electric vehicles. We do not believe this was caused by an electric vehicle flaw. This was an act of terrorism. No EV ban will come into place.

Make no mistake about it, this is the worst act of terrorism since the incident at the Hapilopper National Exhibition in 1980, when armed Wreckerian terrorists fired on a group of paraders in Hapilopper City. We will find who was responsible for this, and we will bring them to justice.

- Brett Booth
- President, the Dominion of Hapilopper

by **Diarcesia** » Sat Apr 19, 2025 4:24 pm

Would a window of opportunity for Laura open so she could be stay in contention for a driver's title? In Aldauren's mind, he couldn't bring himself to close the door on that. The racer's mentality to not quit ran strong in him still. A reality check would be obvious that the season has not gone the way PB hoped. It was de-facto a one-driver team with Sam unable to produce results. With the team opting out of a contract renewal, it could also spell the end of the Blaatschapen's racing career. He wondered if she would move on to the her dieresis's lucrative shepherding industry or become a RLStates mod or something.

The angle of a benevolent team leader has its benefits, and also its drawbacks. He could have opted to cut off Sam after the fourth Grand Prix, but to him, this could be tantamount to burning bridges. Coupled with an established, but not exactly championship-winning reputation, that was to him a perfect recipe for a toxic impression of the team. In the end, he insisted that the way it occurred was the best way to go given the circumstances. He was not to take shortcuts to do his job.

This he pondered while he was back in Pryfurium, in a hotel penthouse balcony after reporting back in person to the executives of the automaker. He would only be in the HQ for a short while, but it was more than enough to get what he needed to plan for the team's future trajectory. While a few of the PB executives appeared to be grumbling at having to fund a WGPC team (thinking it's a distraction from its core business—noting that its heritage is more 'grand tourer' than 'supercar', so to speak), the CEO was firmly supportive, and Aldauren could count on the patronage so long as Siv Ingesson was in charge. With the foundations is in place, he would discuss with Laura what were her personal plans for the future. He was reasonably confident that she would stay, but he needed the Aurun's formal commitment so he could draft up a contract extension and secure the lynchpin of his multi-season plan for PB's attainment and maintenance of success.

On the next all-hands meeting of the team, he had those in attendance write their brutally honest opinion on where they were as a team so far. Once that was done, this were the common themes that he received:

- "My inputs are not being listened to."
- "My team leader overrode the subject matter expert's opinion."
- "Decisions were made without my involvement"

Yikes. Aldauren was centuries old with the life experience that comes with it, but he wasn't immune to organizational blind spots. Elf he may be, but it was far short of omniscience.

He resolved to bring this to his sleep so he could start fixing this with a clear head once he woke up.

by **Recuecn** » Sat Apr 19, 2025 11:12 pm

I greet my brave mother
I say thank you

"Malick, what do you remember of Mama?"

“I remember she wanted me to make her proud in school. When I got bad marks and Papa spanked me, she would save a piece of meat at supper to pack in my lunch pail the next morning. She said, ‘You need more energy so your brain can work hard!’”

“What else?”

“I remember when the journey through the desert was long and I was tired, she nestled me against her breast, so I would not feel the jostling truck. She lulled me to sleep as she watched for bandits and storms.”

“What else, Malick?”

“I remember we saw the sea together for the first time. I pointed at the islands on the horizon. ‘That’s where we will live and be happy!’ I said. I was just a child. She said nothing.”

For your endless blessings
For your compassion for the poor
For your resignation and your humility.
I thank you

“Papa, what do you remember about Mama?”

“I remember the first time I saw her, the way she tossed her head and laughed when she dropped the basket she was carrying. Whenever I wanted to cry, she helped me to laugh.”

“What else?”

“I remember when her hair was up, the way the moon shone on the curve of her neck.”

“What else, Papa?”

“I remember when I told her we would go to Reçueçn for a better life. She knew better than I did, but she let me have my way. All the way through the desert, she trusted me. I didn't deserve that—or her.”

I greet you and thank you, mother
I pray to God and the angels and I place you under their protection

Abdoulaye remembered only her green dress, her soft arms, the scent of mangoes, and the sound of waves on the sand.

by **Liventia** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 2:29 am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

World Grand Prix Organisation steps up Hapilopper security, all credentialed personnel subject to be interviewed by Hapiloppian law enforcement

The World Grand Prix Organisation strongly condemns the terrorist attacks perpetrated during the Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix weekend in Hapilopper City, and thanks the local emergency services for a quick response to the events. The WGPO is shocked by the links drawn by local law enforcement to the World Grand Prix Championship race and takes the matter very seriously.

Security around the Grand Prix and all accredited areas has been increased, with extra security drafted in from WGPO headquarters to assist our local security contractors. Additionally, the WGPO has unilaterally taken the decision to subject all WGPO-credentialed personnel, regardless of their status as team member, driver, pit crew, media, supplier, or owner, to questioning and interviewing by Hapiloppian law enforcement. Anyone who does not submit to an interview, if called up for one, will be banned for life by the WGPO.

We stand with the people of Hapilopper at this testing time. All Grand Prix-related events will proceed as scheduled, but fans are advised to turn up two hours before the scheduled start of their ticketed sessions due to enhanced security checks. Additionally, security at the season's last two races will also be increased.

Internal security briefings within the WGPO have taken place, and continue to take place, throughout the season to identify potential threats to WGPC races. None has been identified for the Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix in particular, and teams, drivers, and fans should have confidence in a safe, uneventful race off the track. They are urged to be on high alert outside of race security confines.

Teams or drivers wishing to not compete in the Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix should make their desires known in writing to the WGPO. No penalty will be applied, unless such withdrawal has to do with avoiding a law-enforcement interview.

ENDS

by **Nico Hulkenberg** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 4:37 am

DAS GRUNEBUCH by Josef Wortsagen

As I watched the landmarks of Hapilopper City disappear below my window’s field of view, the familiar roar of engines hoisting me and many others towards the stratosphere, I couldn’t help but breathe a massive sigh of relief, pull out my laptop, and start typing. It’s not often that I publish a Grunebuch before the conclusion of a race weekend - even less often that I do it before the grand prix itself, but in times of such insanity like this, I feel I may be entitled to a little bit more leeway. In all my years reporting on motor racing, I’ve covered dozens of events in dozens of countries, many with their fair share of issues. For the first time ever - I’d had enough. I flew home. There’s many things I’ve been able to handle that I really shouldn’t have; massive egos, but explosions and real threats to my safety are simply a step too far. Maybe not for some, especially not for the teams, drivers, and idiotic journalists who very much appear to be staying put, but I value my life over my profession. Shoot me. I’m in this role to report on twenty of the multiverse’s best drivers and another eight (or is it six now? who knows. ed.) shit ones. I like to leave the explosions and the war-torn hellscapes to the Herald’s unpaid interns- I mean, war correspondents. I don’t do bulletproof vests, I don’t do death and destruction, I don’t want anything to do with any of it. So, as I write this from the comfort of flyHülkenberg’s new business class cabin, complete with telescreens, free champagne, and a complimentary copy of the Herald, I say to all of who you with the misfortune of still being in Hapilopper - shame on you. I’ve got my feet up and my own home waiting for me, while you will probably be getting strip searched with a hand up your arse by the time the WGPO realises that anyone and everyone could be a terrorist. Enjoy it.

The fact there will still be a grand prix is a disgrace, quite frankly. Many of the drivers and team principals feel the same, but with so many points on offer and so little time to gain them, nobody appears to have the courage to pull out. Indeed, some have already gone home, but not by choice - an unassuming race in Ile Saint-Joseph turned out to be a catalyst for moves, as Ankei Souzare, Nik Hazrin Lutfi, and Shuhei Kamadl found themselves shuffled off the grid without much fanfare. With Souzare’s exit came with it the HiTEN branding, as they evolved into a one-car effort with a gibberish name. Classy as always from Hodori’s heavyweights. In years gone by, the team would have been expelled for fielding a singular driver, but it appears that the WGPO seems to have found a new sense of leniency amidst such tumultuous times. A curious case, to be sure…

All of this does, however, give me plenty to write about, and thus you plenty to read. The travelling circus never fails to deliver, but it may now be time for one of its most impressive clowns to step back from active duty. I refer, of course, to HMG’s Jöhan Turbringer, who may be on the way out following a streak of dismal performances and disagreements with the exceptionally wealthy Adrian Kinder. Kinder, whose daughter you have doubtlessly heard of, is very displeased with how the season has progressed, and places the blame squarely on Turbringer. He also seems to see no merits in Adonis Fitzpatrick, but that’s likely a cover for his innate desire for Nepö to drive for a team he is greatly involved in. Considering he wasn’t able to tempt his own offspring to HMG beforehand, I struggle to see how he’ll pry her from the hands of Urutovsky-Gatutin any time soon - or any other team that wants her, for that matter. UrGa have many problems of their own, one of them being named Vincent, but they are a works manufacturer. HMG are not. While they are trying to change that as evidenced by their announcement midweek, it is fundamentally impossible for them to create a competitive powertrain in the timespan between now and the start of next season, and it may be disastrous for the team’s prospects. It will, however, be hilarious to watch them try. Despite Ted Pressley’s recent inheritance of his namesake team, any suggestions about him becoming an owner-driver are wide of the mark. There are currently no plans to replace either of the Pressley duo - despite Dario faltering badly in recent weeks - and both have been offered contract extensions, which seems to have boosted young Nini’s confidence somewhat. Preston also appears to be safe, despite Angela Tan’s torrid start to the season and the manufacturer’s plans to discontinue support for customer engines beyond this season. There are rumours that Preston have gone back on this commitment, but this may be too late for HMG to take note of, as the only Preston customer on the grid. Many other lineups will be set to change next season, as is often the case in WGPC, but it is still too early to say (for most) exactly who, or where they will go. Time will tell, I suppose.

While I and many others have made our departure, a few of my good friends at the Hülkenberger Racing Association are holding crunch meetings with the WGPO in order to try and secure a spot on the grand prix calendar for next season. While it remains unclear as to which circuit they will be promoting, it would undoubtedly be a great move for motorsport in this country to see top-class racing within its borders. I don’t know about you, but Hülkenberger WGP4 doesn’t quite scratch the racing itch as much as I’d like it to. It should come as a surprise to none of you that Adrian Kinder is batting particularly hard for this, but a surprise financier has emerged in the form of Pressley’s Thomas Kim - possibly spurred on by the team’s desires to retain Dario Nülkeschläger - who has been vocal about the “need” for a grand prix in Hülkenberg. Mr. Kim should probably be focussing more on a grand prix in Tumbra for his own team, but it is rather nice to have foreign company in support of such an effort.

Shortly before I left Hapilopper, I made my way to an airport bar and procured myself some of the chlorinated urine they call ‘alcohol’. The bartender, noticing my distinctly handsome and sultry Hülkenberger accent, took pride in telling me about the time he met a guy, who knew a guy, who knew a guy, who met this guy, who knew a guy, who once walked the dogs of a guy, who knew a girl, who was once Nepö Kinder’s pen pal in primary school. According to her, and through the medium of several stages of Chinese whispers (what is a ‘Chinese’, anyway?), Crown Prince Bismillah was in town for this race, for the intended purpose of hosting a grand prix in the Sultanate of Oontaz, and perhaps to bring Oonaftco Oontaz Racing into WGPC - and who better to court for such a team than its very own AOGP champion? Now, noting the fact that I can’t verify this rumour’s truthfulness, I publish it here merely because I like the prospect that it could be true, and that’s as good a reason as any.

We are, of course, nearing the end of the season at a more rapid pace than I suspect anyone expected. As I write this from my comfy reclined seat, enjoying sweet delicacies several thousands of kilometres in the air, I reflected on the number of flights I’d taken this year. Departure and return flights for the races alone takes that to 22, not including my leisurely jaunts to sunnier places before, during, and after the season. At a time where WGPC seems to be getting more climate-conscious, I seem to be doing the opposite - just the way I like it.

by **Trans-Dniesters** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 7:20 am

“I see that Operation Weatherman has been a success, Doctor, insofar as our side was able to carry out their side to perfection. However, the priests remain turbulent as ever. If anything, the operation has only encouraged them to become even more turbulent than before!”

“We knew that this was one of the two possible outcomes of this operation, my friend. And of those two outcomes, we knew that the turbulent priests becoming even more turbulent was the likelier of the two. Nevertheless, the seeds have been planted. We should sow a crop that is good enough to reap come harvest time. The door shall open once again, and we shall blow it wide open. How are your boys doing, by the way? They should be on the bus, I presume.”

“Don’t worry about my boys, Doctor. They know the way home, and they know what to do should they get lost. The forest is dark and full of surprises, but they know that silence is golden.”

“Your boys may believe that silence is golden, my friend, but I happen to know a couple of buckaroos that won’t stay silent. Sooner or later, there will be noise. There will be rumors, there will be stories, there will be theories. Another Weatherman won’t do us much good; I think we’ve already proved that. But I expect some heat to come my way in the near future. Any potential remedies?”

“Operation Martian is loaded and ready to go, Doctor. The only thing it should have in common with Weatherman is the farms, and my boys stand ready to answer the call if no one else will. In any case, they will definitely stoke the fires and take some heat away from you, should it come to that.”

“Martian, huh? That will hit me where it hurts the most, my friend. But if it’s the price I have to pay then so be it. Now, what of the asset gatherers?”

“Keep your eyes open and ears on the ground, Doctor. The home of the devil we know will come alive within the next 24 to 36 hours.”

“I look forward to hearing the buzz, my friend.”

by **Doubeia** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:01 am

(before the Hapiloppian Grand Prix)

Nini's first trip back to Doubeia was in many ways different from the past few. For the first time, she actually didn't mind the attention in the airport. The air was suffocating as usual — it always was when the arrival hall was packed like sardines — but there was a certain scent of homecoming that Nini couldn't shake off. It felt good to finally touch down in Doubeinese soil, to breathe in Doubeinese air, to be amongst Doubeinese people. As she walked into the hall, she was swarmed by enthusiastic fans and desperate reporters alike. They all wanted a piece of her: maybe an autograph, a few words, some pictures. It was overwhelming, yes, but Nini had to admit she didn't really mind. Unlike her previous few visits, she was coming back home from the back of some great performances. Quenching her points drought and scoring for two races in a row was already massive compared to the past, but it was also clear she'd been putting in massive work with the car and her racing.

It took Nini no time to find her dearest chauffeur, Jean, waiting for her in front of a black limousine. However, her trip to the car was slower than usual. Maybe it was her happiness from finally being home, or was it just her whimsical nature? Whatever it was, it definitely made her much more eager to interact with her fans. A fan stuck out a Pressley cap, and she signed it. Multiple arms were stretched out as people tried to take a selfie with her, and she tried her best to pose for all of them. A reporter wants a quick interview? Sure, she wouldn't mind answering a question or two. Nini's willingness to even interact with anyone was a stark contrast to the past where she'd make a beeline for Jean whilst dodging everyone and anyone. She knew that public perception of her had cooled, and some argued it was even ameliorating. Well, strike while the iron's hot. Give in to everyone's wishes while they're still happy with you.

Once Nini retreated into her car, she let out a sigh of fatigue. The tranquility of the car was respite from the airport chaos, and as much as Nini enjoyed being with people, it got tiring. The jet lag might have amplified her tiredness, but she herself knew she'd been spending far too much time doing whatever she was doing in the car. In a way, she was thankful Jean was on the quieter side. He knew what a silent ride meant: no talking, no radio, just driving. As Nini reclined in her seat, she breathed in once more, savouring the smell of the Shepkin Auto limo. It felt homely. She missed home.

It didn't take Nini too long to reach home, and when she disembarked, she realised just how much she'd missed everything. She took a few steps on the familiar concrete. Familiar concrete. It felt ridiculous to say that, but to her, there was a difference between the floors of Doubeia and the Tumbran streets she had been walking on the past few weeks. The front yard had been properly kept, and when she stepped into the house, she felt as if she hadn't left at all. Flinging her handbag onto the sofa, she ran straight for the pantry. She wanted snacks. She missed the Doubeinese classics, the drinks, the food. She had a craving for everything homemade. Heck, Nini had already made up an itinerary in her mind. For the short break she had before the Hapilopper race, she was going to explore the entire damn country, try new things, taking in Doubeinese culture. It would be a busy few raceweeks, and she needed to take her chance to alleviate her homesickness.

"You're back?"

"Dad?"

Nini turned around and saw her dad walking down the stairs. The two stayed put, both slightly shocked at each other's presence. The momentary silence was broken when Nini ran to him with her arms out wide. The two embraced each other, something they hadn't done in a while. It was the longest hug Nini had ever received in a while. She didn't remember when she last saw, let alone hugged, her father. Was it before the season? Regardless, if there was anything or anyone she missed more than ever, it was her father.

"I didn't knew you were already home," Nini said as she pulled out of the hug, "I thought you were on your business trip."

"Fell ill, had to pull out last minute," he said as he drank from his cup. Nini took a good look at him. His hair was disheveled, and his face was redder than usual. Was he still sick? Sheepish, Nini stepped back.

"Oh..." her voice trailed off, "I can make a cup of hot tea for you."

"It's alright, I have enough upstairs," he replied, "Still, thanks." He let out a phlegmy cough. Oh no, he definitely wasn't well. Nini let her dad be. It sucked that their first meeting in a while panned out like this, but what else could she do? She climbed the stairs to her room. Plonking onto the bed, the mattress sucked her in like a black hole. She felt submerged in her bed, and it was a comfortable feeling. The familiarity of her room always struck her every time she went inside, what with all her stuffed toys she'd collected over the years, the wall pictures documenting her life from birth till then, and all the small trinkets and goodies she'd hoarded in her cabinets since her childhood. The softness of the bed immediately went to work, soothing Nini's fatigue and body aches by lulling her into a deep sleep.

As Nini said good night to Doubeia, she once again found herself in her fantasy dreamland, but this time it was different.

This time, she dreamt she won a race.

by **Hodori Motorsports** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 11:46 am

“So. New problem.” Sawano Mazaregi addressed the rest of TACH GPC, her phone out and recording the meeting. “Where’s our funding going to be coming from?” She and everyone else had some connection or another or some means of bringing money to keep the team afloat, but she wanted a record for posterity.
“In terms of sponsorships, TACH as a whole can rely on Super Option.” Yaraza said.
“We can bring over Kasodani from our GT programme.”
“We’ve started discussions with the higher-ups at Reitoude to bring Izayoi on board.”
“We’ve been in touch with ten*GU. Toudeyaku thinks she can wrangle us a new second driver and some of their GT sponsors.”
“Worst case, we can divert resources from our Time Attack activities to support the team for these last few rounds.”

bfr.himeblog.net
The Blue Flag Report

Circle: Blue Flag Report
Post by 87 Pigeons

Pigeon_87

Ankei Souzare: *Fucks around*
Also Ankei Souzare: *Finds out*

Hello everybirby!

There have been absolutely no takers, so Pigeon’s International Silliness Season has been cancelled.

Also, wow what is going on what is in the water in Happiloper?

Also also, it seems that DHTI had received an anonymous tip regarding an attempt at blackmail, so now they have issued a public statement on charges filed against Ankei Souzare. Check the image up top.

Also also also, for reasons mostly unrelated to basically every law enforcement agency in Hodori wanting to tear Ankei an entirely superfluous new anus, he’s finally out of the WGPC. Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot totally deserved the beating, but even so it’s still assault and battery.

 P  No  DRV  Driver               Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  17  LAU  Janne Laukkanen      Nexus Racing              2      2      0     99.593%
 2  55  LNG  Gil Langdon          KISMO                     4      4      0     99.185%
 3  94  LAN  Ryker Lane           Nexus Racing              4      4      0     99.185%
 4  77  TII  iBen Toralmintii     Race Eelandii VTGP        5      5      0     98.982%
 5  12  SOM  Ron Sommer           Viska                     5      5      0     98.982%
 6  22  JOH  Nini Johnsilvaturr   Pressley Racing           6      6      0     98.778%
 7   1  FAE  Brendan Faloe        Cygnus                    6      6      0     98.778%
 8  27  NÜL  Dario Nülkeschlager  Pressley Racing           6      6      0     98.778%
 9  63  KIN  Nepö Kinder          Urosovsky-Gatutin         7      7      0     98.574%
10  23  C23  Cocoabo #23          Race Eelandii VTGP        9      9      0     98.167%
11  82  LMN  Kinu Luminna         Preston Autos             9      9      0     98.167%
12  96  ARC  William Archer       Viska                    11      8      3     97.760%
13  66  VVV  Vincent Von Visp     Urosovsky-Gatutin        12     12      0     85.336%
14  95  BZW  Hanna Berezowska     HiTEN.gpt                14     14      0     88.798%
15   9  TUV  Batu Tüvshinbayar    WGPC Motorworks          15     15      0     55.804%
16  58  KAM  Shuhei Kamado        KISMO                    16     16      0     88.391%
17  30  MAR  Otto Markul          WGPC Motorworks          20     20      0     10.387%
18  74  FTZ  Adonis Fitzpatrick   HMG Grand Prix           23     23      0     75.153%
19  84  ANG  Angela Ling          Preston Autos            29     29      0     80.855%
20  16  KAW  Azalia Kawakai       WGPC Motorworks          30     30      0      0.000%
21  33  BLA  Sam Blaatschapen     GPA Pryfors Bilar        39     39      0     68.839%
22  14  VIA  Skiia Vialiv         HMG Grand Prix           40     24     16     76.171%
23  37  HAU  Laura Haukanna       GPA Pryfors Bilar        40      2     38     91.853%
24  91  KAL  Naveen Kalkar        WGPC Motorworks          43     43      0     26.069%
25  18  RAH  Giancarlo Rahel      WGPC Motorworks          49     49      0     48.065%
26  21  HAZ  Nik Hazri Lutfi      Piers Ivchenko           50      5     45     89.817%
27  51  CRU  R.L. Cruisin         Piers Ivchenko           51      2     49     89.613%
28  13  PLA  Pierre-Louis Archer  WGPC Motorworks          59     59      0     49.491%
29  88  PRE  Ted Pressley         Ælund Grand Prix         60      0     60     87.780%
30  40  AKS  Adriana Lillian      Eminent                  80     22     58     28.513%
31  85  STO  Olivia Stone         Cygnus                   82      9     73     83.299%
32   7  DEV  Anneliese Devereux   Eminent                  95     75     20     38.086%
33  89  GTA  Abdoulaye Goita      Ælund Grand Prix        117      0    117     76.171%
34  10  ASZ  Ankei Souzare        HiTEN.gpt               437    437      0      0.000%

We get a new member of the Meatball Club with Lutfi’s DNF...which was then followed by his withdrawal from the championship. Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot put in his usual performance in qualifying for the Saint Joseph Grand Prix, arrived in Happiloper with a car that from what WrenchBitch tells me even Linco McPahan would throw out as worthless, got his face reconfigured by one of TACH GPC’s engineers, and now sits in a Happilopean hospital, handcuffed to his bed. He’s out.
In the leadup to Happiloper, we’ve also lost Shuhei Kamado.

And given presently ongoing current events, we might see a number of other drivers also skipping Hapilopper.

 P  Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  Nexus Racing              6      6      0     99.389%
 2  Pressley Racing          12     12      0     98.778%
 3  Race Eelandii VTGP       14     14      0     98.574%
 4  Viska                    16     13      3     98.371%
 5  Urosovsky-Gatutin        19     19      0     91.955%
 6  KISMO                    20     20      0     93.788%
 7  Preston Autos            38     38      0     89.511%
 8  HMG Grand Prix           63     47     16     75.662%
 9  GPA Pryfors Bilar        79     41     38     80.346%
10  Cygnus                   88     15     73     91.039%
11  Piers Ivchenko          101      7     94     89.715%
12  Eminent                 175     97     78     33.299%
13  Ælund Grand Prix        177      0    177     81.976%
14  WGPC Motorworks         216    216      0     94.908%
15  HiTEN.gpt               451    451      0     44.399%

With some drivers switching teams, and one team getting replaced outright – with Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot out not of his own accord HiTEN.gpt is running the last three rounds as TACH GPC – expect some teams to gain or lose BFP and MBP because my spreadsheet never accounted for team-to-team driver changes, only free-agent-to-signed-driver and vice-versa. It’s why the removed drivers are still listed as belonging to their last team, and why their BFP and any MBP still count.

I’m not going to try and figure out how to keep LNC contributions confined to the team drivers have driven for at the time, so with the driver exchanges known to be occurring, after Happiloper: Kismo will gain Tüvshinbayar’s BFP, HiTEN.gpt will lose Berezowska’s BFP and fall to 0% lap completion, and Berezowska will take her BFP and lap completion rate to TACH GPC.

...what does “TACH GPC” even mean? Edit: I’ve talked with WrenchBitch since she knows some of the team members. “TACH GPC” is the “Time Attack Committee of Hodori Grand Prix Coalition”. So there’s that important question answered.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 11:55 am

Try as he might, but William Archer had never been able to find the poor Viska man whom he had almost strangled all the way back in Serizawa. Maybe Viska decided to transfer him back to their home country of Auruna. Maybe the poor guy decided to quit before William got his hands on him again. Maybe, just like the doubter and the supporter, the Viska man never really existed, and William's tortured mind had conjured him up to either get him out of his self-doubting funk or to mess with him even further. Will didn't even know what to think anymore. He had been seeing things for so long that sometimes, it was getting harder for him to tell what was actually real and what were figments of his imagination. And this incident with the Viska crewman was only the latest complication to what was already becoming a complicated year for William.

Viska themselves hadn't said anything about the incident yet, or if they did then William hadn't seen it. That seemed borderline unthinkable for Will; surely a driver attacking a member of the team would be something that a team would want to address and deal with as soon as possible. Will also didn't think that Viska would be the kind of team that would try to ignore an incident like this or even sweep it under the rug, but nobody had said anything about it to him just yet. Or if they did then Will must not have noticed. He didn't think he was that oblivious, but given how bad this year had been turning out for him, William wouldn't put it past himself to ignore these sorts of things, consciously or not.

William had kept his head down after that point. He finally scored his second points of the season in the feature race at Serizawa, a surprising achievement for him given how that was more of a technically tuned track, and William had never really done well at technical tracks. And it seemed that despite his own mental struggles, things were finally beginning to look up for William. The next two races were at tracks where William had done well, historically speaking. The Circuit d’Ares, that almost mystical island where the race itself had to race against the tides before the seas drowned the road connecting Ile Saint-Joseph to the mainland, had been the place where William had won his first ever race in the WGPC. Sure, it was not for any points whatsoever, but it did prove that both Preston Autos and William Archer had race-winning pace. And after Saint Joseph was the Hapilopper Grand Prix, a race that Will had won before. Some people (or maybe it was just William) were also convinced that Will Archer should have also won last season's Hap GP, and had it not been for a disastrous team order from Preston Autos that resulted in Brendan Faloe taking the win from both William and Rudy Edwards, Will definitely would have been a two-time Hapiloppian Grand Prix winner. That team order had been the final straw for William; to him, it proved that Preston was not actually serious in winning a championship, or at least they weren't serious about helping him win a championship.

Will's anger and frustration had definitely cooled off in the time since, but the wounds were still raw and he wasn't ready to come back just yet, not after what he had said on his way out of that team.Will now felt that he had to prove that he could win without Preston power, and he thought that Viska would have given him that opportunity. But that hadn't really happened, and his rookie teammate Ron Sommer had actually gotten a win for Viska before Will did. The first half of the season had not been kind to William, but with the calendar now headed for both Saint-Joseph and Hapilopper, Will now had the chance to get himself firmly back on the right track. At the very least, he hoped that he could get his first win with Viska at one of these two tracks. These were his best chances to redeem himself.

But once again, the racing gods had decided that they were going to shower William with a steaming hot shitstorm. A shit qualifying session was followed by a shit race, and Will was reminded of just how and why he had been able to win his first race at Ile Saint-Joseph in the first place: it was so fucking hard for anyone to overtake in that place. Not even the main and back straights were enough to get him or anyone else blow past the driver in front of them, and Will was forced to accept that this was going to be another pointless race for him. He would just have to pray for better luck in Hapilopper. Surely no one would use team orders on him and Ron this time around, right? Not when neither they nor Viska were anywhere near their respective title fights. But Will had thought the same thing last year, and Preston decided to pull it on him and give the Hapiloppian Rudy Edwards the win at his home race. Maybe it was a good thing that Brendan Faloe took the win away from both Prestons, or else William might have actually walked away from the team right then and there.

But nothing was ever normal whenever any given motorsports series went to Hapilopper, and this season of the WGPC was no exception. First there were the two car bombings which were beginning to look more and more like they were politically motivated, and then there were the unexpected driver moves. Nik Hazrin Lutfi was gone; Shuhei Kamado was gone; Ankei Souzare was finally gone. And while everyone else was rushing to fill the gaps, Will Archer was minding his own business for better or for worse. He didn't want to go out of his room for fear that he might lay his hands on someone who didn't deserve it just because he was seeing the doubter in their place. He really, really didn't want a repeat of what had happened in Serizawa.

Another man who was doing his best to mind his own business was Adonis Fitzpatrick. Unlike his friend William, Donny had not really marked down the Saint-Joseph Grand Prix as a race in which he could score a boatload of points for himself and for HMG. Donny had long ago accepted that HMG was not going to be an obvious candidate to win the constructors’ championship this season, but that didn’t stop him from believing that their car was capable of getting points and maybe even a podium under the right conditions. But the right conditions had been difficult if not impossible for the team to come by, and for most of the season Donny had simply been focused on keeping the car on the track and making sure that it went back to the garage in one piece. This wasn’t to say that Donny thought that the entire season was a wash; he certainly kept an eye on tracks where he actually stood a chance of getting into a good position on Saturday and keeping said position or maybe even improving upon it on Sunday, and the Circuit d’Ares was supposed to be one such track. He had started the day in P10 but would end up sliding down the order and out of the points. But the true disappointment, at least from HMG management’s point of view, was Skiia Vialiv falling away from what should have been a near-guaranteed podium to finish only right in front of Adonis in P14. Sometimes, Donny just felt like if HMG didn’t have bad luck then they would have no luck at all whatsoever.

They would have to do it all over again in Hapilopper City for the Hapiloppian Grand Prix, but before anyone could even get going, there was already trouble in the air. Two electric vehicles had blown up in the capital city within seconds of each other, and the prevailing theory was that someone had done this on purpose despite EVs not having a great history of safety and reliability in this particular country. Because of this, the Hap government declared the two explosions a terrorist attack, and as a result the WGPO had beefed up security for the Grand Prix itself. But that wasn’t the only news revolving around the grand prix. Three drivers had been dropped by their respective teams, all for different reasons. HiTeN.gpt had kicked out the terrible, horrible, not so very good driver Ankei Souzare and had been reduced to a one-driver team. Nik Hazrin Lutfi had left Piers Ivchenko for undisclosed “personal” reasons, and his replacement was Banijan newcomer Jjuko Okafor. And Shuhei Kamado was judged by KISMO to have been placed in WGPC too early, and to prevent his development from being stunted even further the Ajian team had opted to bring in their reserve driver Batu Tüvshinbayar.

Adonis Fitzpatrick's relationship with Batu Tüvshinbayar was complicated, to say the least. Donny had been grappling with trying to figure out where his feelings for the Mongolian actually lay, and when Batu had failed to secure a race seat in the WGPC at the start of the season, Donny thought that that would buy him enough time to actually figure out what he actually felt for Batu. But then Batu found himself a place in the WGPC Motorworks team, and now Donny was unable to ignore the Mongolian. Well, he did try to ignore Batu, but that was followed by a surprising downturn in form on Donny's part. Maybe it was just a coincidence, and it probably was a coincidence, but Donny was just a little too superstitious to dismiss the possibility just like that. It had to be more than a coincidence that Donny failed to qualify for a race at around the same time that Batu got a Motorworks seat. Nobody had even done anything yet, but the mere possibility that Adonis might have to figure out where his heart lay when it came to Batu seemed to have triggered a crisis of confidence in him.

And now, for the last two races of the season, Batu would see himself back with a proper team in KISMO. Donny had already sent him a text congratulating Batu for finally making it back to the big time. But now he was also much closer to Adonis, and once again the Fleftic had to figure out how he truly felt about the Mongolian. Donny was still no closer to figuring that out now than he was at the start of the season. Adonis did consider if the reason why he couldn't figure out his feelings for Batu was because he no longer had any feelings for the TJUN-ian, but if he really had no more feelings for Batu, why was Donny still worried about the guy? Why was Batu still in Donny's head after all that time? Why was every other thought in Adonis's head something to do with Batu Tüvshinbayar? How in the world was Donny supposed to score any points in Hapilopper? So many questions, so little time.

And it wasn't as if Batu was the only thing that Donny was worrying about. He was now also concerned for his friend William Archer. The younger Fleftic driver had called Adonis and told him that he had a problem. For his part, Donny had been expecting and dreading this call from William. He had always known that William had some problems of his own, but this was the first time that Will looked like he was ready to acknowledge that those problems existed. Nothing was official yet, but Donny had heard that William had laid hands on a Viska crewman. Donny had never known William to be the kind of person to do that even when he had the worst of luck with Preston last season so this was a strange rumor to hear, but Donny had seen in William's eyes that the rumors were true. And he saw in Will's eyes that the younger man was afraid of what he had just done and what he could possibly do if something pushed him over the edge.

Donny had tried to assure William, tell him to offer an apology and make sure that the incident didn't get blown out of proportion. Viska didn't look like they were doing that, but that wasn't indicative of anything. Maybe it was Viska that decided that whatever William had done to their other employee, it was not worth getting all that worked up over it. Donny himself didn't know what to think. If he was in the crewman's shoes, he probably would want at least some measure of justice meted out. But at the same time, Will looked like he was truly sorry about what he had done, so maybe there was no need to make this matter a public one. In any case, Donny Fitzpatrick felt like he was currently between a rock and a hard place when it came to his friends William and Batu. So many things to take care of, so many things to worry about. It was enough to make his head spin.

One thing at a time, Adonis, one thing at a time, Donny told himself. First, he had to make something out of a P13 start in Hapilopper. Then it was to help out William once again if the younger man needed it. And then maybe, finally, it was finally time to tell Batu exactly how Donny felt about him.

Nababaliw na ako sa iyo, ako ay litong-lito
Naloloka, nahihibang sa kaiisip sa'yo, sa'yo

by **Patriotlandia** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:03 pm

Pierre-Louis got to the recording studio a little early. He is not one for acting much so doing commercials for sponsors usually gets him more nervous than race starts. In normal circumstances commercials are usually filmed in the off season but this opportunity presented itself last minute and funds are starting to run low after multiple races without qualifying. He stayed in his car for a moment scrolling through social media. The feedback on his recent results has been negatives from fans. Some have been saying he didn't deserve his spot on the grid and was too slow for the WGPC. Before he got too angry, Pierre-Louis put the phone away and made his way into the building.

As he got close to the front desk, a tall blonde greeted him: "Mr. Archer, nice to meet you, I am the marketing manager, walk with me and I'll get you situated".
"This shouldn't take too much of your time", she continued, "we are only looking for a couple lines and some B-roll".
"That's what I like to hear.", Pierre-Louis replied.

They continued their walk down the hallway before stopping at a door with the inscription "Studio 3". "We will be in here for filming but the changing room and makeup station is on the next door to the right."
Pierre-Louis made his way down and changed into the provided blue racing suit and made his way to the hair and makeup station. Once ready, he made his way across the hall into the studio. Inside he found a midsized spaced filled with all the recording and lighting equipment. In the center of it all, sat a race car, a replica, of sort, of a WGPC car donned in the colours of Marathon Batteries. Just off to the side was the director looking of the framing with the camera operators. Pierre-Louis made his way to introduce himself.

The director than explained the scene to him. He was to climb out the car and give his lines. Nothing out of the ordinary. "All the driving CGI unfortunately this is just a carbon fiber hull." the director explained. "They truly are coming for our jobs", Pierre-Louis replied jokingly.
The filming did not take long, just as the manager had said. Pierre-Louis soon made his way back to his car. As it started the radio aired a talk show. "He just isn't ready for the big leagues yet", said one host. "Meh, I think the car is for something here. It's like it hasn't had an upgrade all season", replied the other. "All I'm saying is he should have stayed here and raced prototypes. Something he was actually good at". With those words Pierre-Louis slammed the mute button and made his way out of the parking lot. "I just want a minute of peace", he thought, "at least the drive back should clear my mind before the flight".

by **Turori** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 1:42 pm

Cruisin maintains Points lead into Explosive Hapilopper City Weekend

Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix, Hapilopper Grand Prix Circuit, Hapilopper City, Hapilopper :: Despite a runner up finish at the Circuit d'Arès, Piers Ivchenko driver R.L. Cruisin only managed to extend their lead atop the World Grand Prix Championship drivers standings by a single point, now holding that advantage over Ælund Grand Prix's Ted Pressley, the winner of the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph. It is perhaps to be expected at this point in the World Grand Prix Championship season that the true title contenders are beginning to establish themselves. WIth three races left in the World Grand Prix Championship Season 21 campaign, mathematically there are still 21 drivers who could still emerge with the World Grand Prix Drivers Championship. There was, however, a clear gap at the top.

Behind Pressley it was a further 17 points back to the third place driver Dario Nülkeschlager. Of course, the biggest distinguishing factor at the top of the standings was victories. WGPC 21 Championship leader R.L. Cruisin and Ælund's T ed Pressley are the only two drivers with multiple victories so far this season with two wins a piece, setting them apart from the rest of the field. A log jam of drivers from 3rd back to 6th place Ryker Lane which includes Abdoulaye Goita and Janne Laukkanen will still realistically feel like they are within close enough range to challenge for the championship. Beyond that, the last two drivers who likely feel they can do it are Laura Haukanna of Pryfors Bilar and Viska's rookie driver Ron Sommer, the only Rookie with a feature win so far this season, Sommer would likely need at least a win or two and a string of podium finishes to close out the season just to stand a chance.

Beyond Sommer, through the Urotovsky-Gatutin drivers and Race Eelandii VTGP's iBen Toralmintii, there has to be the feeling that the championship is already lost. Of course, if there are two drivers in the field who know that its technically still possible it would be Toralmintii and Viska's William Archer. Both drivers have previously gone on a string of race victories to close out a season - Toralmintii winning four in a row during WGPC Season 17 and Archer taking pole and race victories in the last two events of World Grand Prix Championship Season 19. However, both drivers have something else in common. They both finished second in the drivers standings despite their torrid string of victories to close out the World Grand Prix Championship Season.

Naturally, the reason is obvious. Just because its still mathematically possible to win the championship, doesn't mean its reasonable. Ælund Grand Prix, Nexus Racing, Piers Ivchenko and Prsesley Racing, the top four teams in the Constructors Standings, are not likely to see both their drivers end the season with no points finishes to enable someone like a Toralmintii or Archer to unleash a run of form and climb through the standing right at the end. Historically, the World G rand Prix Drivers Championship rewards the driver(s) who show that high level of performance throughout the totality of the season which is exactly what Pressley and Cruisin have done, winning races in both the first and second half of the campaign and continuing to show constant speed - including a 1-2 finish in the most recent Grand Prix.

Of course there was nothing equal or predictable about racing in Hapilopper City. Heading into the Preston Autos Hapilopper Grand Prix weekend, there were explosive changes on the Grid with three drivers being dropped, one switching teams and another coming out of nowhere to replace a fan favorite - something that will almost certainly have an impact on R.L. Cruisin's title challenge with Piers Ivchenko. Then, as teams and fans were arriving to Hapilopper City the explosions turned far more real as terrorist attacks throughout the city have come at an absolutely terrible time for the World Grand Prix Organization to try to assure the teams of safety. While there are no reports yet of any drivers or teams backing out of the Hapilopper City Grand Prix it is still possible that it happens before the lights go out.

With some drivers and crew members reportedly being outside 'the bubble' when some of the terrorist attacks took place, it just added yet another level of distraction in the Piers Ivchenko paddock. While the team were trying their best to shield R.L. Cruisin and the the team from the turmoil, it was hard to do when it was literally staring them in the face at the morning meeting in the form of Banijan Jjuko Okafor. Just days after reportedly being pitched by a high profile Tropicorp-backed World Grand Prix Championship team, the Banijan found themselves on the grid in a very different way, taking the second seat of the top performing Brimstone supplied team at the suppliers home Grand Prix.

When Piers Ivchenko brought R.L. Cruisin on board to be their #1 driver for WGPC Season 21, there was an expectation that Cruisin would serve as a mentor for the junior driver who, regardless of who it actually was, would be far less experienced at the top level of Open Wheels motorsports than Cruisin was. The veteran had made good on their promise, meeting regularly with Sharktail's Nik Hazrin Lutfi to go over the lines, look at video and help Lutfi to avoid over driving the car - among other things. Cruisin was also on record to say the sessions with Lutfi really helped them as well, Being able to calmly baseline themselves with the younger driver on every World Grand Prix Championship track, then heading into the race and having their own guidance on how to drive the track locked in after having hammered it home to the rookie driver in the pre race.

Now, as Okafor stared back across the table, it was tough for Cruisin to imagine starting over with another driver who had never even step foot into a World Grand Prix Championship race before. THe circumstances were different too. Cruisin was competing for a championship. He wasn't certain the circumstances as to why Okafor was chosen to replace Lutfi, who failed to score a single Top 10 finish over the first 7 Rounds of the season, but it probably had something to do with money. Cruisin would, of course, be happy to help if Okafor should approach them, but the schedule of the World Grand Prix Championship points leader was getting highly packed and difficult to find gaps, particularly with the time required to exit the paddock effectively doubling with the new security checks. The team decided the best thing for car #51 was to focus on the task at hand. Practice. Qualify. Race. Debrief on Monday with the whole team then. At that point, if there was any veteran advice to pass along, that would be the right time. Of course, should Okafor reach out during any natural downtime over the Hapilopper City race weekend, Cruisin would certainly be willing to entertain a few questions and offer some pointers to the driver preparing for their first ever Grand Prix start.

R.L. Cruisin ✓

@Cruisin
It's a tough fight out there and we probably played it a little too safe. You can tell that Abdoulaye has got nothing to lose there and they put up one heck of a lap. We're starting the race directly in front of Ted and if we can keep the #88 behind is for 55 laps or whatever it is, then I think we'll consider it a good day at the track and be happy to escape this explosive place. This track is really the best suited to my driving style of the three remaining circuits so we really need to get a strong finish in Hapilopper.

#WGPC : #PiersIvchenko : #HapilopperCity

Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph, Circuit d'Arès, Île Saint-Joseph :: It was a miserable, wet and rainy drive on a difficult to pass circuit. Gigantic straightaways. Frustratingly, for much of the final 30 laps, iBen Toralmintii would be heading Northbound toward Frontiere and could look across and see the Ælund Grand Prix machines on the other side of the track. First it was the #88 of Ted Pressley. Eventually however, Ted had pulled so far in front of iBen that the #88 was already through turn 2 and deep into Siant Joseph by the time Toralmintii got to the straightaway. Then, they were catching glimpses of the #89 of Abdoulaye Goita on the other side. That was the car that iBen had driven for the better part of 6 seasons. In fact, it was originally announced as the #77 car - which would have been fine all things considered, but then when Ælund Grand Prix decided for marketing purposes to go with consecutive numbering in the 88/89, Toralmintii was able to re-claim the #77 that they had so much success with.

Yet, even while having their best drive of the season, Toralmintii had to watch lap after lap as the Ælund Grand Prix machines pulled further and further away from him. Considering how terribly WGPC Season 20 had gone for all parties, it probably was no surprise that Toralmintii was open to other offers in the offseason, and that Ælund Grand Prix was looking for a younger option that wasn't the driver who had just scored the worst ever points performance of a defending champion driver in modern World Grand Prix Championship history. Still, iBen wondered if it was a mistake. For both parties. While Ælund Grand Prix was once again back on top of the Constructors standings, they weren't leading by nearly as much as they would have been in the hey-day of the Talvela-Toralmintii partnership. While Ted was performing quite well, Abdoulaye was still searching for their first victory. Perhaps if iBen was in that car things would be a little different. They could have more wins. iBen could have more wins.

61 laps, the last 41 uninterrupted. Back and forth on two huge straightaway sections. There was plenty of time for Toralmintii to let their mind wander on the track. However, while other drivers might struggle to keep racing focus in the rain on a track that goes from dull to dangerous in the flick of a simple right hander ominously called 'la herse', iBen never let his wandering thoughts affect his racing line. While the Race Eelandii VTGP machine might not have had the same raw speed on the day as the Ælund Grand Prix and Piers Ivchenko cars ahead of them, Toralmintii was in a drivers no mans land - half a minute in either direction to the nearest competitive car. He wasn't about to give up a good finish with a silly mistake.

When the checkers finally came out, iBen Toralmintii had earned their best feature finish of the season: 4th place. While the team had fallen short of a podium finish, it still managed to bring a smile to the crew in the paddock. With Cocoabo #23 just narrowly holding off a hard-charging Janne Laukkanen, one of the few drivers who figured out how to pass on the Circuit d'Arès, it meant a second double points day of the season for Race Eelandii. iBen would slide up into the Top 10 of the Drivers Standings with having amassed double the amount of points they had earned during the previous World Grand Prix Championship campaign. Things were certainly improving. Yet iBen and Race Eelandii were also running out of time. There were just 3 races left in the season - likely the final three of iBen Toralmintii's career as a World Grand Prix Championship driver. Were the improvements the team had made enough to get Race Eelandii VTGP back onto the podium before the season was out? If it was to happen, Toralmintii was well aware that the Hapilopper Grand Prix circuit might not be the place. In three previous Grand Prix starts at the track, Toralmintii has never posted a podium finish with a best run of 4th position. Entering the home of Brimstone with the Preston Autos team having gained significant momentum placing both drivers in the Top 12 in Saint Joseph, the quality of the competition needed to overcome to find a way onto the podium had never been higher, and the team would have to find yet another gear of performance if they are to be able to shine through before seasons end.

V&T RACER Online ✓

@VTRacer
With qualifying now concluded in Hapilopper City, the @RaceEelandii drivers struggled to find their pace on a track that lacks some of the technicality that the team tends to shine most within. #Cocoabo23 and @iBen77 will start side by side in 17th and 18th and will likely need to rely on some carnage in front of them to find a way back into the points on this weekend. Toralmintii will need to watch the mirror as starting directly behind will be the Banijan Jjuko Okafor making their first ever World Grand Prix start.

#WGPC :: #HapilopperCity :: #Media

by **Banija** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 2:00 pm

Banijan Ambassador to Hapilopper, Alanyo Muhumuza, reading his diplomatic update about [url=https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=42643109#p42643109]Hapilopper terror investigations in regards to the Grand Prix

Muhumuza was getting ready for his daily morning briefing. It was Saturday- this Saturday was not a working day, at least for him. Obviously, diplomats worked well beyond the traditional 9-5, but this Saturday was a rare one where he didn't have any events scheduled. He always had his daily briefing, of course- as he always needed to be kept up to date on issues relevant to Banijan foreign policy. His team had been following the Hapilopper investigations slowly, and while he was appraised, he was not really concerned about it. Hapilopper's domestic security services had an excellent reputation, and the bilateral relationship had gotten less close ever since Hapilopper has stopped being in the same region as Banija. Nothing malicious on either side- just less common concerns to deal with.

So this diplomatic outposting wasn't a huge priority in either nation. The Banijans had a fairly small embassy here, and he wasn't planning on working much. Go into the office, get the daily briefing, answer a few emails, and then spend the day with his wife. They were planning on traveling to the countryside, maybe going on a hike this weekend.

So when the briefing started, nothing was surprising- except for the last request. "Oh, and one last thing." His Chief of Staff told him. "You're getting a request from Jjuko Okafor's team for diplomatic support during the Grand Prix this weekend."

"Diplomatic support?" He questioned. "Wait- who the hell is Jjuko Okafor?"

"You don't know who Jjuko Okafor is?" The Chief of Staff asked. "There's a Grand Prix in Hapilopper City this weekend! It's tomorrow!"

"Of course I know it's tomorrow, I don't live under a rock." Muhumuza snapped back. "But you didn't answer my question."

"He's a driver." Muhumuza kept staring. "Oh- a Banijan driver."

"A Banijan? In the World Grand Prix? What is he, some sort of alternate?" Muhumuza said.

"He's racing." The Chief of Staff replied. Muhumuza was pretty surprised. "He just got signed to a team. His first race is tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Muhumuza asked. He was pretty surprised. "Shit. Should we be there?"

"You're the boss, sir. But he didn't make the daily briefing because he was racing. The Hapilopper Government is interviewing basically everybody in conjunction with the terror threat in the city. Okafor's team is asking for diplomatic support."

"He's a suspect??" Muhumuza was incredulous.

"No." The Chief of Staff replied. "As far as we can tell, no Banijans are suspects. But they want support- as there are a number of Banijans he's bringing with him. Potential sponsors, agents, staff, etc... Who will potentially all be interviewed."

"Well fuck." Muhumuza sighed. "Alright. I guess I'll stick around the city today then. Call our lawyer- tell him to support. I'll send a message to the President- let him know the Banijan state will cooperate, and will help ensure that Okafor's team cooperates as well, while supporting them. And then, I'll also send a message to Busukuma- let them know so there's no surprise."

Aissa Racing Magazine

"One of our own" - Jjuko Okafor prepares to be the first Banijan to ever race at the World Grand Prix

HAPPILOPPER CITY, HAPPILOPPER- As everybody knows, motorsports isn't really that big in Banija- as of yet, anyways. But we might have had our first ever breakthrough. Famous among the street racing circuits here in Aissa is Jjuko Okafor. Famous, of course, being very relative- but the raw skill of the youngster, of course, cannot be denied. But look- after dominating at home, he's looking to go big time, into major competition- and he's gotten himself a deal, to sign for a team for the rest of the 21st World Grand Prix season.

He is officially a member of the Piers Ivchenko team. "I would like to thank the entire Piers Ivchenko team, and in particular, Naganomiya Kokomiya, their Team Principal, for extending me an invite." Okafor told reporters. "I promise you- my work ethic will be through the roof, and I will do my best to give everything back, and more, to my team, and my teammates, for what they've done for me, granting me this opportunity to participate in the World Grand Prix. But this isn't the accomplishment- although it is an accomplishment. The work doesn't stop- the work only ramps up from here. I know I've got a lot to learn ,and I feel like, for this season, this opporutnity will give me a great chance to grow."

What can we expect from him? We have no idea! Not much, of course- but hopefully, it will be an opportunity to really ensure that this sport can extend beyond Aissa, to all of Banija. Not much of a preview, of course- but look for us as we'll be on the ground for some full, in-depth analysis after Okafor's first ever race at the World Grand Prix. Best of luck to this son of Aissa!

by **Valentine Z** » Sun Apr 20, 2025 2:05 pm

Part 16 – The Great Equalizer of All Wild Things. Angela also thought (albeit late) that she might chat up Kinu.

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 was awed by the breathtaking view that is the Circuit d'Arès. She has been reading through the pamphlet and the excerpts for quite some time, and they all have still been fascinating to her. It is a small little island nation, situated off the coast of Normandy. To say that it is small might perhaps be a bit of an understatement, what with this nation being only around 550 meters by 550 meters. In fact, it would seem like it’s even smaller than Vatican City, at least the ones that are in the other parts of Earth. In Valentine Z’s world, however, Vatican City is around 2.97 hectares. Going back to the track itself, it would make sense for it to be around the entire nation itself; if one has made a lap around the track, then they have already seen more than half of the place (which is termed a town). On top of that, it is connected by a causeway to France, which is also used as part of the track that they were going to race in. There was also something on the causeway disappearing at high tide and the like, but for the entire duration of the race, it should be fine for all of the drivers. It might also mean that qualification and practice times were limited, much to her disappointment.

Still, Angela made do with what she was given, and she gave her best effort. The practice was not too good, but then there came the opportunity in the form of qualifications – she was able to place 11th, just right ahead of Kinu Luminna, her teammate. It is not so much that this fact has been lost on her. Despite the two drivers having been together since the beginning of the season, it would have seemed like they have not directly interacted and talked to each other. Not that Angela was seeing someone more than a friend, either. However late as it might be, she felt that she should make a bit of a move and talk to the guy. “Maybe at the end of this race. He probably have a little too much on his mind as well,” she thought to herself, happy with her qualification results. She set the alarm on her phone a couple of times before having a little bit of a supper in her spaceship. “A little bit of a light snack, hehe.”

Her spaceship is one that can house up to 10 people (or 20 if one really tries to jam-pack the persons), a small spacefarer that has seen significant upgrades to it as the decades have went on. Initially, it was simply a shuttle that was meant for exploring the solar system. Then it was upgraded with the ability to travel at speeds up to 0.95c, followed by accommodations and compensators to account for the relative time that she has spent on the ship. It would be in the next few years that the Valentians have perfected the concept of space-time stretching, finally allowing Angela (and the others) to travel at speeds faster than light. The current model, along with the technological (and magical) advancements have made it possible for the ship to travel at up to 1e+60 km/h, making travels across universes a breeze as long as she has the coordinates correct. Yet, despite all of these advancements and the like, the ship does not exactly have the amenities for Angela or its crew to cook up a meal. It was actually by choice, as Angela reached out into the fridge and grabbed a small packet of MRE in her hand. “Cookies and cream? Eh.”

She sat on the table as she opened up her laptop, looking at the news as well as playing some catchy pop music to hype her up well into sleep. As Angela finished off her food, she realized that there has been relatively nothing going on with the news all over. There were articles about her being mentioned, which was natural given her 3rd place finish. “Well, I wouldn’t want that to get into my head too much,” she mused, “I know I did great there, but I do have to focus, of course.” This next race was going to be just that, as she thought of simply keeping her position for the entirety of the race. It was a relatively safe bet, since the track was rather difficult for the drivers to overtake.

The others, however, have no such qualms with having to overtake. Kinu in particular, managed to get off from his starting position on the grid to a much more respectable 7th spot, giving him 4 points to himself, and to the team. Angela was one spot lower than her starting grid, and so there were no points for her. “Ahhh, could be a little bit more aggressive, I suppose,” she quipped, but nonetheless was happy for her teammate being able to get the points. In fact, with this race having been concluded, both Kinu and Angela were close in terms of points – 16 and 15 respectively, a total of 31 for Preston Autos. It was not the most optimal of things, but it was still good enough that the team has placed 10th out of 15. “In trades, we might call that “Not scraping the bottom of the barrel”. Well, except for that one poor team,” Angela mused to herself once again as she got herself a change of clothes. Casual outfit for the night, Angela made her way out of the spaceship and then to where she reckoned Kinu might be hanging out at. The two might possibly strike a conversation together, and of course, a little bit more about each other’s life, fears, their ambitions, and what they do as job. “Oh, hello, Kinu!” she started off, “So hey, congratulations on the finish today! That was wonderful! Nothing much from myself, just thought I would, well, talk a little bit more to you.”

“I know, I know, I’m so sorry. I did think of talking to you more throughout the entire season. I have been a little bit busy or preoccupied with the lack of points that I used to not have. Of course, I then talked to the Preston Autos folks, and then things got a little bit lighter and easier for me.” She paused for a while, giving Kinu some space before continuing on just a little bit. “A little bit more about myself, if that’s all right. I am from Valentine Z, and, well, I am an astronaut! One of the many in the country, hehe. We used to do explorations in our own Solar System, and then we naturally expanded from there to other galaxies… and other universes. That is how we got to these places!”

"Ooh, that honestly sounds cool!" Kinu, typically curious about various things, looked up with childlike wonder. "It's awesome that you get to travel around. Space travel is basically unheard of back in Auruna since it's not part of ANICO's (Aurun National Institute of Celestial Observation) mission. But, coming from a small village in the snowy north of Auruna, I'd say I'm lucky that I also get to do basically the same thing with WGPC, albeit a little bit more... grounded... but it's still fascinating to see different kinds of places! Especially ones that I've never been to before!" Kinu ended with a chuckle as he continued to snack on some Aurun pastries that he brought along with him, offering some to the Valentian. Angela accepted the snacks, looking at them with mere curiosity. “Oh, nothing, don’t worry! They look pretty interesting, is all! So… a little bit like those croissants that we have here,” to which she would show a picture from her phone, then would continue on, “but more square and filled with some spread.” She took a bite, and of course, she loves it, “cinnamon-coffee? An interesting combo, but very delicious nonetheless. Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t have anything in return for now. Err – I mean, you can have them, it’s fine, but I’m not sure if you will like them. It’s a couple of MREs – Meals-Ready-To-Eat. I live off them during my space missions.”

Kinu took a sip of his coffee. "There's something that I'm curious about regarding what you do... if you don't mind me asking." Kinu paused for a second just to take another bag of snacks to prepare for an explanation that would answer his question. "I wonder how you guys travel? Like... what kind of spaceship you guys use, how does it work and do you guys have any trouble or some limitations? The kind of space travel you guys do only exists in fiction in our world and I just couldn't believe that it was possible." Angela mulled over the question for a moment. It was not so much that it’s private (well, some of them are) but for the most parts, she can explain. It’s to summarize it.

“Hehe, you might want to sit down for this!” Angela replied back cheerfully, to which Kinu did (or already have). “So – initially in the days of the Pre-Valentian Era, we have the typical NASA along with other space agencies hailing from the other countries. We went as far as the Moon itself, and that was it, really. Then the war happened and we were down to a little more than 500,000 people. It was… quite a decision, from what I have read about and the like. It had to be done, as it was written. I was born after the Valentian Era, so I wasn’t around first-hand for most of these. I will fast-forward a little bit to my life as an astronaut because that might take a little too long. Again, nothing private, of course, I could give you details about that another time. Moving onto the Valentian Space Agency thing – not the most creative name but we did get the job done – we started off with missions to the Moon first, most of which were successful; then we went to Mars for the first time, Jupiter, Saturn… eventually the whole Solar System. In those days, we were simply just doing it for the science, and of course, to understand more about our world.”

“Funnily enough, we did the exploration of our universe first before terraforming and colonizing Mars. I suppose it was a matter of priorities, because we didn’t really have a population problem back then just yet. I think I got a little too far ahead, I apologise! Anyway, at first – it was just a small spaceship and spacefarer that could go up to 0.95c, limited by theory of relativity. Then years later, around 2039, I believe, we got a breakthrough and a great discovery in the field of Warp Drives, and Space-Time stretching. It was limited at first, but after a while, we managed to make it work very consistently and efficiently. Had to cap it at like 1e+60 km/h, which is more than fast. As for the more technical details such as the engines and limitations, hmm…” she paused for a while, waiting for Kinu to take in all of it before continuing on, “The engines are quite a mix of warp drives and ion boosters. Really big thrusters are only used to escape Earth’s gravity. Then without the limits of gravity, we would chart a path – one optimally without any obstacles even something as small as 0.01 mm, but it’s a bit difficult. We were stumped by that for a moment because even if space is stretched or contracted, there’re still those particles. […] We managed that with the fourth spatial dimension, which we further found out in 2040 (took a year, of course!) that it’s empty, at least for the one in our world. So that was our ticket to large distances – a warp drive in the fourth dimension! We took our ships with the tech, went around our universe, and found out that we are indeed alone, in our universe.”

She would explain a little bit more about the Valentian tech to Kinu – most of it being, well, futuristic technological marvels themselves. They were the ones before the world of magic and fantasy came into the scene, but that also is again for another time. “That is a bit of an abridged version. I am aware that I have left out the details, but for the time being, I think it might get a little too overly detailed, hehe. No offense to you, of course, it’s not because of you in particular! Just something I might need to consult with The Sixty. So – with that… I would like to ask about yourself as well, if that’s okay. I assume that this is the first time in WGPC, and you’re doing great, to be very clear! I was wondering as to – well, if you were not going to do the racing, domestic or international, what do you typically might find yourself working as? I reckon that you might be interested in linguistics because yeah, same with me. Having been to many systems and worlds, you need to understand their languages – some are difficult, others… a bit difficult. Some of the worlds don’t have books, let alone phrasebooks. Anyway, would like to ask about that, on top of the languages that you are fluent in. For myself, I know English, Valkyrie Sprak (which to be honest, was not much used in every day life), and just a small little bit of Canadian French. I picked up a small bit of Inuit as well!”

Kinu already knew what to say when Angela asked him about linguistics. "Answering your question about what I will do if I couldn't race... yeah, I might be a linguist since I studied it when I was recovering from my accident just to have a backup just in case I am unable to continue racing. It has been a passion of mine after learning more about Aurun and Kuyonnen. After discovering that I, somehow, can easily learn other languages I then became fluent in Marešan since I just found it fascinating as to how it sounds but not to the level of Aruzhin - a unique language which I could talk about for hours! It may be a 'dead' language currently but it's important in the history of not only the Aurun language, but it helps uncover more of Aurun history and culture!" Kinu was undoubtedly excited as he unknowingly got carried away with the topic, showing a different side compared to what many saw him as. Angela listened intently, nodding her head meaningfully and was happy to learn about the other worlds and cultures. Granted, she has not reached and seen many worlds (as well as across different timeframes) like Eveline has, but she also has a fair share of stories to tell, cultures to share, and the like. “It has certainly been an eye-opener for the both of us. Hey, good luck with the race in Hapilopper! I am going to take a rest for now. Let us talk again soon!”

[Italicized parts are written in collaboration with Auruna. The three images are made NOT for the RP, but are from my existing factbooks.]

World Grand Prix Championship 21 [RP/results]

Supplier Performance Standings - Rd. 7 - Cocoabo Wheel

WGPC21 IX-2 - Joy And Change

Olivia Stone - 7. Flash

WGPC 21 Silly Season Kick Off

WGPC 21 : V&T RACER Hapilopper City Preview

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