WSRC 03 | Stage Rally | RP Thread

by **Aboveland** » Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:59 pm

If you are new to rally, or to motorsport in general, have a look at this brief guide to understand how the sport works.

Stage rally (not Rally Raid, as the Dakar Rally, or Rallycross, which is held on circuits) is a racing discipline where drivers race against the clock on point-to-point stretches of closed public roads called stages, or special stages (SS). Rally events tend to last between one and three days, also called legs, and generally, each leg is separated into two ‘loops’ of stages. Stages within a loop are separated by road sections: open, public roads which drivers use, at road speed, to travel from the start of one stage to the other. As rally is a timed sport, drivers must arrive at the start of a stage, also called a time control, at a specific time. Should they arrive too early, or too late, they receive a minute+ time penalty, depending on the time difference. A loop is a number of stages run consecutively: for instance, a leg might have a morning loop and an afternoon loop, wherein the morning loop drivers race on three stages, before returning to the service park at midday and then going out to race the stages of the afternoon loop. Rally events are based in a city, where the service park (essentially the garage/pits) is located; fans may visit the service park to get up close to their idols. Cars are stored in the service park overnight, and drivers return to the service park between loops for service, roughly a period of about 60 minutes where drivers may repair their cars and make changes to their setups before going back out to race the remaining stages of the leg.

CRUCIALLY, as drivers do not race around a circuit multiple times, they are aided by a co-driver/navigator, who reads the pacenotes the duo have prepared before the rally. The pacenotes are annotations which tell the driver how the road ahead looks, how sharp the corners are, if there are any jumps or hazards, etc. Before a rally, drivers and co-drivers drive through the stages twice at road-speeds to write down their pacenotes.

Stage rally is more similar to time trials than to a conventional race. Drivers go out onto the stages one by one, separated from their rivals by an interval of a few minutes, which means that unless one driver encounters trouble along the way and is slowed down, drivers will generally not run into each other during a stage. In the end, the winner of the event is the driver who has completed every stage in the least possible time. After the final stage, drivers return to the service park, where the podium celebrations take place.

A driver may lose a lot of time on a stage if they have a punctured tire, if they crash and carry on, if their car has a mechanical issue, etc. If a driver fails to finish a stage, it usually means their car has been damaged too much to continue.

RP Thread

Welcome to the RP and results thread of the second World Stage Rally Championship, NationStates' analog series to the World Rally Championship. If you're looking to sign up a driver, team or rally, or if you would like to discuss out of character, do so in the OOC thread. There is to be absolutely zero out of character discussion in this thread.

The WSRC is currently in its

Competitive Season

FREE AGENT and PRIVATEER signups will remain open indefinitely. All other signups closed.

To see how the negotiation period usually works, read below and/or have a look at the RP thread for the last WSRC season. Once you have signed a driver up, begin writing about them in this thread. The more interesting the story you create, the more chance your driver has of catching the eye of one of the teams. There are no rankings. Success is built on good roleplaying by team-owners, drivers and team-mates with your driver’s ratings coming into play too. Above all, though, remember that results are randomly generated, and nothing may guarantee success.

You may RP however you like. Maybe you'd prefer to tell the world that a couple of teams are interested in your driver via some rumour-mongering in your local newspapers? Perhaps you'd like to set up an interview with a team? Maybe your driver has a big social media presence or can’t keep out of the news for all the wrong reasons? There is no 'right' way to do it, and the only 'wrong' way to do it would be to attempt to confirm your driver is racing with a team before any real negotiations, OOC, IC or otherwise, have taken place.

When you wish to confirm that a driver has joined a team, or formally offer a spot in your team to a driver, please do so in bold. With the proliferation of off-site discussion and interaction, it has become commonplace to secure driver deals off the forum. Though this is inevitable, it is encouraged for participants to develop the WSRC pre-season in the pre-season RP thread. A solid RP base set during the pre-season period enriches drivers, teams, and the quality of the competition as a whole, in addition to improving participants' chances of success. If all the discussion is had off-site, this elemental part of the process is sidelined.

Remember that teams may have two or three drivers; only the top TWO of a team's drivers classified in a rally will score teams' points.There is no deadline for teams to have their seats filled.

CALENDAR


Date	Event Name			Surface	 Host City	 Length (km/SS)	Rain % 	A (avg)	T (avg)	RCE (avg) E (avg)  Banner/Logo
22/9    Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland	G	 Brukkifordet	 481.3/27	13.00%	6	4	1.4	  2.5	   https://i.imgur.com/e1n9dUI.png
29/9    West Pavola Rally            	G/A/S	 Icenbrook (KYP) 495/18	        14.00%	3.8	6.2	0.8	  2	   https://i.postimg.cc/fTsKQdL3/West-Pavo ... y-logo.png
6/10    Agricola Rally Malopole	        G/A	 Malopole	 505/16	        4.00%	6.7	3.3	1	  3.9	   https://i.imgur.com/ez4y83f.png
13/10   bet.koi Rally Port Starside	A	 Port Starside	 500/19 	1.00%	3	7	2	  0.75	   https://i.imgur.com/HXbImBM.png
20/10   Wakkanai Winter Classic	        S	 Wakanai	 508/10 	30.00%	2	8	0.1	  5        TBD
27/10   Aurunair Rally Auruna	        G/A/S	 Nisko	         478.4/21	6.50%	6.75	3.25	1.7	  3.17	   https://i.imgur.com/mbrrXzO.png
3/11    ZX-Flow Rally Togonistan	G	 Metavira	 463/26 	7.00%	5	5	2.3	  3	   https://i.imgur.com/9oeIJ5i.png
17/11   Yemigama HPI Rally Esportiva	G/A	 Yegitou-kie	 585.81/15	30.00%	2.63	7.37	2.71	  3.71     TBD

· Events and dates subject to change.

DRIVERS AND TEAMS

Team Name                             NAT       R       A       T
Sport Mikuren-Viska                   AUR       3.25    4.45    4.30
77| Raatikainen/Blomqvist             KIM       4.00    3.00    5.00
37| Haukkana/Vorlen                   AUR       3.40    4.00    4.60
16| Imparato/Nogueira                 VEZ       4.00    3.00    5.00

bet.koi TGK-VK WRT                    KBL*      4.00    4.00    4.00
 5| Watanabe/Hitchens                 KOI       2.50    4.75    4.75
87| Aurinen/Kalienta                  AUR       3.80    4.40    3.80
10| Boludo/de Fitzlawrence            QUE       3.50    4.00    4.50

Sakite WSR RD Project                 HDR       4.05    3.97    3.98
71| Shuadakei/Shuadakei	          SYU       3.50	4.25	 4.25
72| Pajari/Kalliomäki                 ABL       3.90	3.20	 4.90
 7| Whaariny/Portier                  KYP       4.80    2.90    4.30    

Carlton                               TMB       4.00    4.00    4.00
42| McCreary/Steinbrugge              TMB       4.00    4.00    4.00
73| Carbalo/Palinski                  DOR       4.00    5.00    3.00
 3| Kuyara/Souzare                    HDR       3.50    4.25    4.25

Billingshurst Motors WRT              CCU       4.00    3.50    4.50
99| Cavuqu/Heidigger	                 CCU       4.00	4.50	 3.50
22| Novikov/Baardsen                  ABL       2.90    4.70    4.40
94| Rusegara/Moh                      QUE       3.00    5.00    4.00
 
Privateer entries not registered as manufacturers
Lauri Vorlen                          AUR       2.00    6.00    4.00
Terho Talvela                         ABL       2.50    6.00    3.50
Jonas Arendtsson                      KYP       1.90    5.20    4.90
Vytautas Čiurlionis                   DCS       1.50    6.00    4.50
Komuno Seokaya                        HDR       1.87    4.15    5.98
Trevon Gallegos                       AFT       2.50    4.50    5.50

*Aboveland/Koaiwa joint entry

Available/free agent drivers

Driver Name		DRV	NAT	P#	A#	R	A	T	G	A	S
Imparato/Nogueira	AUG	VEZ	16	15	4	3	5	4.5	4	6.5
Čedër/Čedër	        CED	ILM	99	50	4	3	5	6	8	1
Raatikainen/Blomqvist	RAA	KIM	77	7	4	3	5	4	5	6
Novikov/Baardsen	NOV	ABL	22	23	2.9	4.7	4.4	5	7	3
Pajari/Kalliomäki	PAJ	ABL	72	68	3.9	3.2	4.9	8	1	6
McCreary/Steinbrugge	MCR	TMB	42	93	4	4	4	4	7	4
Dizadare/Énuts	        DIZ	DCS	35	26	3	4	5	4	4	7
Marbula/Gee	        HAZ	ARC	10	11	5	5	2	1	10	4
Cavuqu/Heidigger	CVQ	CCU	99	50	4	4.5	3.5	7	6	2
Carbalo/Palinski	CAR	DOR	37	73	4	5	3	5	7.5	2.5
Aurinen/Kalienta	AUR	AUR	87	34	3.8	4.4	3.8	7	2	6
Haukkana/Vorlen 	HAU	AUR	37	39	3.5	4	4.5	7	5	3
Mëlander/Lösspeng	DME	DMN	46	63	4	4	4	6	5	2
Dawei/Zemin	        LDW	AMN	8	10	3	5	3	7	4	4
Shuadakei/Shuadakei	SYU	HDR	71	72	3.5	4.25	4.25	7	7	1
Kuyara/Souzare	        KUY	HDR	3	19	3.5	4.25	4.25	5	10	0
Whaariny/Portier	WHA	KYP	7	77	4.8	2.9	4.3	8	6	1
Boludo/de Fitzlawrence	BOL	QUE	10	91	3.5	4	4.5	5.5	3	6.5
Rusegara/Moh	        RGR	QUE	77	94	3	5	4	7	3	5
Watanabe/Hitchens	WAT	KOI	5	55	2.5	4.75	4.75	7.5	7.5	0
Privateer entries
Vorlen/Kua      	VOR	AUR	24	42	3.4	4	4.6	7	1	7
Talvela/Goita	        TAL	ABL	56	3	4.1	4.8	3.1	6	7	2
Arendtsson/Ernestdóttir	ANS	KYP	38	63	3.8	3.8	4.4	3	6	6
Čiurlionis/Cotzlousces	CRL	DCS	23	96	3.9	3.1	5	9	1	5
Seokaya/Seokaya	        KSK	HDR	26	11	4.54	3.59	3.77	7.55	7.45	0
Gallegos/Reotutar	GLG	AFT	84	26	3.5	4.5	4	5	7	3

by **Tumbra** » Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:47 am

Somewhere in the Tumbran Northlands

"Some holiday this is," grumbled Sophie McCreary as she trudged in the northern moors of Tumbra. It was a cloudy morning; the sun was barely shining, obscured by fog as thick as soup as she continued her hike. "Paulie, do you have any idea where we're going?"

"The map takes us where we need to go," said her hiking partner, Paul Steinbrugge.

"You woke me up at five to go look at some ruined terrorist hideout."

"It's a part of the local history."

"They were active like. Two years ago."

"So? Still history, Sophie." He grinned. "You were always this impatient. It's good to see that hasn't changed."

"I — wait, what?" Sophie glanced up, quizzically. "Good?"

"You've changed a lot over the past year or so. I'm just glad you haven't changed too much."

Sophie felt a small smile on her lips as she continued hiking. The past year had been tough for her. She'd been rushed into her WGPC debut without a season in WGP2 first; made headlines, had three crashes which she sometimes still felt in her ribs, and then dramatically announced her departure from the sport after just ten races. It was an accelerated career; overshadowed, perhaps, by the exploits of one Brendan Faloe, who'd gone from mild-mannered university student to world champion in that same timespan. But Faloe would return; she wouldn't, at least for now.

"I guess that's right," Sophie said, quieter this time. "You've changed, too."

"Retirement does tend to take a weight off the shoulders," Paul fired back, good-naturedly. The two had been team-mates for one season at Pressley Racing's TSF effort, before Sophie graduated to the big-time. That year had seen Paul try to calm Sophie's erratic yet fast driving style into a style that was simply fast, though he'd soon come to terms with the fact that Sophie wasn't Sophie without the perpetually on edge driving style she employed.

"You didn't want to stay?"

"I simply felt it was time to move on. Plus, they care much less about the TSF effort now."

"Really?"

Paul nodded. "Everything's put toward the WGPC and WGP2 effort now. Us TSF schmucks get scraps. And I'm not getting any younger, Sophie. I'm 41 and I'm past my prime."

Sophie looked at Paul's weathered hands, a ring on his fourth finger. Somehow, Paul, who'd been with Pressley since 2014, when they entered the sport, looked...older than he should have been. Sophie had been around Pressley's racing effort since she was young; she always remembered him as having an effortless charm, a head of thick black hair, and so on. Now...not so much.

"I'm the past. People like you, Ted...they're the future. Hang on."

"Yeah?" Sophie asked, stopping in her tracks.

"I see something. Look." Paul handed Sophie his pair of binoculars. In the distance was something that looked like a car.

"Is that a car?"

"Looks like it. Let's go check it out." A mischievous glint entered his eye.

by **Lisander** » Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:47 am

花びらが風にそよぐ音が森に響きました。
レオラは慎重にドアを開け、周囲を見回した。
それから彼女はそれを閉めて再び眠りについた。
彼女は着物の中で怠けていた。

The sound of petals rustling in the wind echoed through the forest.
Leora cautiously opened the door and looked around.
Then she closed it and went back to sleep.
She was lazy inside her kimono.

by **Dod Rava** » Wed Aug 30, 2023 2:11 pm

Rawa, Park im.Marynarzy, evening hours

Jacek Palinski spotted Alina Carbalo comfortably seated at a fast-food booth, eating a zapiekanka.

"Alina! Good to see you. Mind if I join you?" he asked amiably.

Alina glanced up from her meal, her face alight with surprise. "Jacek! Of course, feel free to sit."

Jacek settled himself across from her, but not before he bought a beer for himself.

"So, how have you been holding up after what went down with your contract?" he inquired with genuine concern.

Alina let out a sigh, gently placing her snack aside. "Don't remind me... But yes, I suppose situations like this are part of racing. Right now, I'm working on moving forward and figuring out what comes next."

Jacek nodded in understanding, his eyes showing empathy, in his career he was changing teams multiple times.

"Understood. So, have you given any thought to your next move?" he asked, his curiosity visible.

Alina paused, reflecting for a moment. "Well, I've been exploring opportunities wherever there's decent compensation..."

Leaning back, Jacek sipped his beer while attentively listening.

"Really? I didn't take you as that, greedy and money-focused. What about the thrill of racing and passion? It's all about money then?" he teased lightly, a playful tone in his voice. Alina, in response, took another bite of her zapiekanka.

"Mhm... belive what you want but, I've been considering the WSRC."

Jacek's demeanor shifted to one of seriousness.

"That's quite a leap. It won't be a smooth ride for you, but I have faith in your talent. I mean, that's why I'm here with you, not with the so-called 'new generation' drivers like Julita Lérida and Patryk Racki," he remarked, laying emphasis on the last part with a mockingly exaggerated tone.

"Lérida is nothing special we both know that," she responded with a smirk.

Jacek's eyes danced towards the sky as he spoke, adopting an exaggerated tone. "Well, I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Perhaps she just had an off season. After all, she's younger than you and..."

Alina's patience wore thin, and she playfully pushed Jacek, a hint of irritation in her.

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm just poking fun. You know I'm not a big fan of that Academy stuff either. Anyway, have you called up for any tests or tryouts yet?" he asked, steering the conversation back to Alina's plans.

"Nope," she replied promptly.

"Well then, if you're serious about securing a seat there, you'd better get moving!" Jacek advised, his encouragement evident. "I've finished my beer anyway, so you can make calls, write emails, letters, or send pigeons if needed, but actively seek out that opportunity to present yourself boldly." He said, punctuating his words with a supportive smile.

Jacek crumpled up the beer can and he threw it in the trash. Pushing his chair back, he stood up. "I'm done here. Got some things to take care of in the city. If you need anything or you get a tryout somewhere, call me, catch you later."

He offered a casual wave before walking away, leaving Alina with her thoughts.

Alina Carbalo is open to invitations for any kind of tryout from any team.

by **Auruna** » Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:13 am

Sport Mikuren Rally
Nisko, Auruna

From what they experienced in the previous season, that feeling never left the team in pink.

While it was a relatively quiet off-season for the Aurun outfit, they have made some significant decisions in a bit to be more competitive in the following WSRC3 season where they expect to encounter a bigger challenge. The biggest one they made is cutting off any ties with Schkeska which proved to be a huge risk, bombarded with threats from Schkeska's upper management until they were backed by Viska, their new, more beneficial technical partner. For team boss Juri Mikkula, it was the most stressful part of the off-season negotiations and he felt immensely relieved after the new Viska partnership was eventually set in stone.

With the Viska partnership came along a question of engines, after watching Viska's failed first attempt at making their own engines by themselves, the two parties enlisted the help of AHI-Livanen to supply them with their own power units. And finally, Mikuren can now take it easy for a moment, from a team just scraping by to more organised operation. With not much to worry about, they turn their focus to another critical part of the team: the drivers.

Back at his office, Juri was presented with several information-rich documents featuring scouting details after being tasked with deciding which drivers to sign to the team. It was something he dealt with before but it's not so easy this time although for the first driver, it was an easy choice for him after everything that has happened. He took a pen and marked it before switching to his laptop to email the pair. After sending an email to Raatikainen looking to sign them for another season, he then turns his attention back to the other drivers, looking closely at the details to finally decide their line up and to not make the mistake of having fewer drivers at the beginning... as well as the other thing.

His thoughts come out from his mouth as he analyses everything. "Who would work well with us..." He already had his top two to consider for a seat but he knew that it would be hard to get a contract signed. First of all, Kälö Aurinen, he was the team's star driver last season but he had always longed for a seat with another team and so, they knew Mikuren would be his last choice if it comes to that point so negotiations with him will be put on hold. Next, Axel Novikov, Rally Auruna winner, is up for consideration following the disastrous controversy by Iskabil-Ælund which left him without a team... for now. Lastly, he doubts that Gallegos would be happy to return for them which means that at the meantime, Mikuren would have two open slots.

It's going to be a difficult choice as it's what will make or break a team. Something that Juri needs some time to carefully think about. They were lucky last time but now, the situation is different. He doesn't know if Mikuren should host a trial or just pick a driver blindly but still, there's a lot to choose from.

After going through everything on the papers, he marks the ones that piqued his interest before storing them in a folder on his desk.

"Let's see how everything goes."

Karalinne, Auruna

Rally has always been a part of Laura's life, even though she is an established WGPC driver, she wanted to get back to competing in rally but didn't know where to start before WSRC hit the Aurun stages. While returning to the ARC would be a good choice, her years with WGPC made her want to compete internationally in rally. Watching the first WSRC Rally Auruna, it seemed like a test to see if the event could garner the attention of local rally fans and it was successful as Laura managed to tune in to every rally. For the following WSRC season, she personally attended, along with the Aurun team Sport Mikuren, nearly all of the rallies and even managing to be presented an opportunity to become Kälö Aurinen's co-driver after Zuiha Kailenta's injury for the last couple of events. It strengthened her passion for the sport and soon after the WGPC 20 season concluded, she looked to compete in WSRC this time.

While all preparations are ready, she was missing one crucial thing... a co-driver. Her former co-driver during her ARC days, Nina Karola, moved from the sport and pursued something else. So she is out of the picture. Laura tried to ask some of her friends but most of them aren't even qualified to sit beside her in a rally car. Erik told her before that he would be taking a break in the WGPC off-season so there's no chance that he is available for WSRC. Haru, the most qualified of them all, is expected to be busy with WGP2. And finally, she will be competing against Kälö if she were to get a seat.

Her search nearly ended until she was reminded of a young and talented driver from Nisko when said driver messaged her asking for some help in a game that they both play. Laura messaged back before asking him.

Laura: "Aiki, would you like to be my co-driver for this WSRC?"

Aiki Vorlen, somewhere in Nisko, was surprised by the message. Reading it several times over just to make sure and he still couldn't believe it.

Aiki: "Is it alright?"

Laura: "Yeah, you have your license and you won J-ARC, this is your chance to experience something bigger than ARC."

The lad from Nisko gave it a thought, taking a few minutes to carefully decide what he will do next. Well, it doesn't hurt to try something new.

Aiki: "Joi. Mä kurua, etterä." ("I'm in, let's go.")

And so, Laura's search for a co-driver was a success. It was surprisingly easy as Aiki didn't even take too long before agreeing. With that out of the way, their entry was finally submitted and then all they could do for the time being is to wait. They don't know what to expect and for the most part, they are on their own. Laura could only hope that a team would be kind to consider them for a seat.

After the two agreed to pair up for the WSRC, the official list was eventually published online for fans to see and they were in shock to see the unusual pairing of Haukanna and Vorlen. While they aren't competing against each other this time, it brought nostalgia to the older fans to see the name together in rally once again.

Iö, Auruna

Somewhere in the town of Iö, Kälö stands infront of a replica of his WSRC2 Kana SR (modified for daily driving) that was given to him, waiting at the parking lot of a local convenience store on his phone. He regularly checks his watch as if he's timing something while he waits. Then several minutes pass and with perfect timing, he pockets his phone then unlocks the car as Zuiha comes out of the store.

"That took a while." Kälö joked.

"You said I could get everything that I wanted here."

"Makes sense."

"Also, why didn't you come with me inside?"

"Well, I know the guys here so they'll just give me a fuck load of discounts which would be unfair."

"It's unfair that you didn't tell me that!"

"Heh~"

The two then settle in the car as they prepare to head back home. The car then comes to life at the turn of a key, quite different from the usual but it was one of the modifications made to it for daily driving. Before they set off, Kälö told Zuiha everything about what he found about the new WSRC season. The pair had some plans already set for the upcoming season with a special one regarding the teams that they would be interested in driving for. While they know that their incredible performance in the previous season would not go unnoticed, they think that they still need to impress whatever team that they are going for as they are also uncertain that they would be sought after even with their achievements.

On the drive back home, their discussions continued albeit slightly muffled by the engine sounds. It felt like they were in a road section of a rally and with that thought, Kälö couldn't contain his excitement of what's to come in this new season. Then after several minutes of driving, they reached Kälö's house. After parking the car, Kälö brought up another thing about the WSRC.

"While the calendar isn't finalised yet, I just hope that Nisko could host it again."

"Why is that?"

"First thing is that we could have a round right at our backyard... and the second thing is that, I really want to beat Axel in Rally Auruna at least. We were close last time but at least we made it challenging for him. It was really fun and I want to go against him once more!"

"I don't know if you're brave or stupid to go against the Abovian but, I believe that you can do it. If we just do our best like before."

"If that's the case then... I can't wait."

by **Kimi-Suomi** » Fri Sep 01, 2023 3:25 pm

A Coffee Shop
Kimi Kaupunki, Kimi-Suomi
11:00 KDST

11 am in Kimi Kaupunki is a time that isn't exactly the busiest in the world, but it also certainly wasn't quiet...with people coming in and out for some much-needed energy from the caffeine gods. This city can certainly bite your ass if you're not careful but it wasn't as if the two characters on Table 24 were concerned as they met up for the first time in a long time to talk about Ralli...not about waiting for the rally. Two years ago, the tandem of the extremely talented Laila Raatikainen and the loud-talking co-driver Pehr Henrik Blomqvist arrived to the WSRC scene looking to prove that the nation's proud traditions could hold up to the international microscope. That experience was certainly a fruitful one, one with both joy and heartbreak in spades, but they would end up in P4 to finish things off and that certainly didn't sound too bad all things considered.

Since that season came to an end, the two of them have tried to improve themselves and their skills - taking part in local events and joining JR temporarily for the famed Burman Bros Classic in Hapilopper from time to time - but they missed this sport more than all the others, missed the drama of international competition...and especially those pink race suits they got used to wearing day in and day out.

But now, it's time to start once again. The schedule is unclear, the champions are nowhere to be seen and nothing seems to be absolutely certain in terms of who will even be on the grid. But Sport Mikuren want them back...and there is no way in hell they are saying "ei". The time has gone for pink to get back into fashion...and time to start the journey to Auruna once more.

Raatikainen and Blomqvist accept the offer from Sport Mikuren.

by **Tumbra** » Sun Sep 03, 2023 7:56 am

Carlton Motors signs Sophie McCreary/Paul Steinbrugge as their first driver.
Carlton Motors invites Alina Carbalo/Jacek Paliński to try out for their second driver slot. (This will be roleplayed)

Still in the Northlands

The car — which turned out to be a Carlton Cross — seemed to be in pristine condition.

"Seems suspicious," said Sophie, examining the car.

"Really?" said Paul.

"You don't normally see cars out in the middle of the moors like this. Reckon we die if we turn the ignition?"

"No. Let's see."

"Paulie, are you really suggesting —"

"Open the door and we'll see."

Gingerly, Sophie opened the door. The key was already in the ignition. Smiling gently, Paul Steinbrugge opened the glove compartment and put on a pair of gloves.

"It's new. Paulie, do you have anything to — for fuck's sake, Paulie."

"What?" Paul said as he slipped on his gloves. "What's up?"

"Did you set this up?"

"Yeah. I wanted us to have a little bit of fun. You know. Introduce you to rallying." Paulie said as he strapped himself into the Cross.

"Rallying?"

"Yeah. Carlton approached me a few months ago. They were looking for a driver, but I want to stay retired. Then I thought of you. Rallying's good fun, Sophie, and it'll help you work through your traumas. Trust me."

"I just want to take time away from sport."

"Sophie, we both know that's not how you operate."

She grinned. "Yeah."

"Let's give this a try. I'll guide you. I told the people at Carlton that you'd give it a try, because they are looking for people to fill up one of their three seats. You're top of their target list; plus, throwing your car around is actively encouraged here."

Sophie turned on the ignition, and the car hummed to life.

"This isn't a WSRC-spec Cross, and we're not wearing helmets, so, easy, okay?" said Paulie gently as Sophie gripped the gear stick.

"Yeah, yeah..."

by **The Kytler Peninsulae** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:05 pm

From the news website of Kytlerian national broadcaster NBO.

West Pavola Rally "expected to be announced imminently"

Plans for a three-day rally race across Kytlerian and Græntfjaller territory are considered to be "at an advanced stage" and could be confirmed as soon as tomorrow, according to sources involved in its planning.

The proposed West Pavola Rally would form part of the World Stage Rally Championship, featuring the finest rally drivers from across the multiverse. It is understood that the race would finish in Græntfjall after two days of racing across several Kytlerian states, with the race's "service park" - where cars are kept overnight for checks - to be outside the Kytlerian Wonderland theme park near Carroll Lewiston. The first day of racing would be in the northern peninsula, while the second is reportedly to feature multiple stages in Varn.

The possibility of a rally race across the Kytler-Græntfjall border had been briefly floated in discussions surrounding West Pavolan cooperation by the Giisost administration, but had been progressing in secret, with most expecting it to be delayed for some time. Now, it appears that it could form a part of the impending WSRC season.

"It is very close to being finalised, and could be part of the WSRC 03 season," a source told NBO under condition of anonymity. The announcement of the rally would not ensure its inclusion in the WSRC, as the schedule will be finalised after all race proposals have been submitted. An impending deadline for such proposals "will very likely be met, so it will then be up to the WSRC to decide on the schedule and if there's a place for it."

"The first stages will be through the Northern Downs," reported the source, who is understood to have been involved in route planning. "Begins in Icenbrook with the shakedown (a short qualifying stage) and then runs through the Downs and ends up in Zube, probably at the Olympic Park although the details are still being finalised there - something very special is planned for that, but it needs a lot of safety planning. Then the next day starts in Bay City and then there's stages in Varn on the dirt roads there, and then the third day is in Græntfjall."

Another source, understood to be a Culture and Sport Department civil servant, said that "the business plan for the race is sound. There is an agreement with the two governments, and also with a Græntfjaller sponsor with a lot of B2B (business-to-business) connections to the Kytlerian market." The description is understood to refer to one of the Græntfjaller operators of cloud computing data centres. The country's cold climate has made Græntfjall a highly popular destination for such facilities, which require extensive cooling due to the demands of large banks of servers.

While it is not clear when the West Pavola Rally will take place - assuming it does - there would be a Kytlerian driver involved. Jonas Arendtsson, the Zube-born son of the founder of Græntfjaller company Svensson Haulage, will be driving a modified AWR Skirmisher under the branding of his father's firm. A second Kytlerian driver, Dizabeg Whaariny, has entered the driver portal for an opportunity to join one of the six factory teams in the competition, although he is not guaranteed a seat with 20 drivers in the portal and at most 18 drives available.

The article to which that not-actually-a-real-hyperlink connects...

The son of a notorious stockbroker who became a rally driver

Apyrphung Whaariny went from an anonymous rich man to a far-from-anonymous richer man in a hurry.

As a stockbroker for leading investment bank Pavinv, he was empowered to make big bets on companies whose shares were expected to outperform. But his biggest bets tended to go the other way - on shares going down rather than up. He would do this by "short selling" - effectively owning a negative number of shares for a while, with a binding commitment to buy back the shares at a later date.

If the share price rises, short selling ends up with a loss - and the trader on the other end of the deal, who backed the price to rise, makes a profit at the short seller's expense. But if things go wrong for the company in that time, short selling can be hugely lucrative.

And twelve years ago, things went very badly wrong for Cosy and Co.

The home furnishings retailer had appeared to be faring very well. They were the largest sofa retailer in the country, with 90 stores nationwide - on the southern peninsula in particular, every meaningfully-sized town seemed to have one. And they were making reliable, if relatively modest, profits seemingly every year.

What most had downplayed, but Whaariny hadn't, was how much of their growth into the Eastern Corridor Expansion was funded by debt. The company was paying millions of toaks every year in interest payments on that debt, and Whaariny believed that made them extremely vulnerable to a rise in interest rates. With financial markets already starting to anticipate such a rise in light of inflationary pressure in a booming economy, Whaariny put two and two together and "shorted" at least 400,000 Cosy and Co shares, worth Tk21 each at the time, with a requirement to buy them back twelve months later.

Twelve months later, there were no Cosy and Co shares to buy back. The company fell into administration and within months was broken up into pieces - the brand name and other intellectual property were purchased by a Citiz hedge fund, the store sites were mostly sold to other businesses (the budget gym chain Sweat24 acquired 15 of them). Whaariny had made Pavinv at least Tk10m, a large portion of which he kept for himself as part of his contract. To some in the tabloid press, he was a villain - a man who made millions by betting against one of the country's best-known companies.

As far as he was concerned, he was just doing his job. "I saw a situation where I wanted to be on the short side of a deal and I knew there'd be someone on the other side of the transaction. You have to remember that for someone to short a stock, there has to be a buyer on the end of it. Takes two to tango."

Whaariny retired from Pavinv two years later; he'd made more than enough to retire on, and he wanted to hide away from the notoriety. He spent the next six months avoiding all human contact where possible, even getting his groceries delivered to him by one of his few remaining friends so he wasn't met by a delivery driver who might recognise his name.

All the while, he was supporting his teenage son Dizabeg with his motorsport ambitions. He had a professional-grade racing simulator installed in the basement of his five-bedroom house on the outskirts of Alaer, on which Dizabeg would spend much of his spare time playing racing video games. He took a particular shine to rally simulators, and a year later - with his father no longer as reclusive - would start to participate in go-kart races, which he regularly won with unnerving ease. Given his chance to drive real racing cars, he would ultimately end up competing against adults in the relatively small Kytlerian off-road racing scene, where he quickly gained a reputation for consistency beyond his years.

Dizabeg is quick to cite his father's influence in that regard.

"I learned from his career and how he succeeded that sometimes the boldest thing to do is to play safe," he told an interviewer last year. "Essentially, the companies he bet against were those who looked like they were doing well but were vulnerable to crashing, like Cosy and Co did. And that was always something I thought about, especially when I saw drivers have literal crashes and they looked really scary. Never saw anyone have really bad injuries but kept thinking I would, heard about a couple who did, and I just dedicated myself to not letting that happen to me."

He is the only driver to make at least 50 starts in the history of the Kytlerian Rally Championship and finish them all. Now, he is hoping to take that talent to the biggest stage of all, the World Stage Rally Championship.

"I believe that every team is looking for someone who can provide some sort of stability, or at least I would like to believe that," he said. "To have someone with mechanical sympathy who doesn't take big risks, that just changes everything in the service park when every second counts, if you have less to do there it changes everything. And while all the sponsors want to be associated with a winner, they don't want their names attached to someone whose car is in bits over the edge of a dirt track and everyone's photographing it. No driver can guarantee avoiding that, of course. This sport is too chaotic for guarantees. But I back my ability to avoid that better than anyone. And even if I'm not the fastest on the road at this level, there's a saying I'm very fond of emphasising - to finish first, first you must finish."

Whether he will get the chance to finish a WSRC rally is another matter. There are only so many seats available, after all, with just six factory teams offering at most three seats each. But of the 20 drivers in the WSRC free agent pool, few if any can offer the safety of the man whose family fortune came from making a big bet against someone else's big bets. The Whaariny family tradition lives on in another explosive field.

by **Dod Rava** » Tue Sep 05, 2023 1:04 pm

Alina Carbalo and Jacek Paliński accept the invitation to the Carlton Motors tryout.

Subject: Acceptance of Tryout Invitation for Carbalo/Palinski

Dear Carlton Motor Team,

I hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits. We are writing to express our heartfelt gratitude for extending the invitation to participate in the tryout for position in the WSRC Carlton Motors team. We are thrilled to accept this opportunity and we are fully committed to giving our very best during the upcoming tryout and demonstrating our unwavering passion for rallying.
If there are any specific details or prerequisites related to the tryout that we should be aware of, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We are dedicated to promptly fulfilling any such requirements.
Me and Mr.Palinski are eagerly looking forward to the next stages of this selection process and remain enthusiastic about the possibility of joining the team.

Warm regards,

Alina Carbalo & Jacek Palinski

by **Aboveland** » Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:10 am

Vankkavalta Kyvytelsesbillettalli workshop
Vankkavalta, Aboveland

"Okay, we'll stay in touch then!" Mats Andersson, director of the workshop, stretches his pale hand out towards the other Abovian opposite him, who frowns. He looks down at the older man's scaly, pasty skin, dimly lit by the glow seeping into the workshop on the outskirts of the Abovian capital. During the pause, the engine of the TGK Albatross parked behind them sputters off. The younger, Axel Novikov, meets Mats' hand.

"Yes," the former champion replies. He holds Mats' hand and gives it one single broad shake. "Maybe." He can't even muster a courtesy grin. The three men — the team principal, Axel, and his co-driver, Henrik, cross absent stares, give each other a short, shy nod, and head in opposite directions.

Axel and Henrik's walk back to the car is silent until they've shut the cheap glass door leading into the VK workshop. The former champion looks over his shoulder to check for peeping ears, but they seem to be enough out of range.

"It's hopeless," Axel finally says, shoulders low, head hanging, his feet almost heavy in front of him. "Absolutely hopeless. It's no wonder they struggled so badly last year."

Henrik remains quiet until they've both dropped into their homologation-special Iskabil Skua — a relic of a team now forgone. He glances over at his partner in the drivers' seat, the look on his face concerned yet hopeful. He stares in silence for a few moments until Axel frowns.

"Just think for a moment, Axel," Henrik implores. He turns to face the Abovian and leans over the center console, his elbows digging into the soft leatherette pad. He stretches a hand out to pull on his fingers as he counts. "Where else do we have to go? Viska's cars are made of glass and nobody knows what the hell Billingshurst is; the Hodorans, I don't think they're too keen on us either. So it leaves us betting on nobodies from Tumbra, or this."

Axel shakes his head and grimaces. "There's no way I'm throwing Sakite out like that. Hell, I'm close to telling you I'm not driving anywhere else than Sakite. We're too far into our careers to be toiling at the bottom of the standings like some amateurs, don't you think? And I'm sure they've got potential, like every year."

"You're missing the point, Axel!" Henrik exclaims, lightly slapping the other's leg. He brings his hands to his head and curls his fingers against his face. "Think: what do we have left to prove anymore? The WSRC is a niche championship in itself; we're niche ex-champions in a tiny quiet corner of the motorsport world. What do you really think would raise our stock, would really make us... great? The easy way out, or rising out of the mud — or out of nowhere?"

The Abovian brings his fingers to his eyebrows and rubs firmly, groaning and sputtering. "So you really want to give these amateurs a chance?" Henrik grins back.

"If we can turn them from amateurs to winners..." he shrugs. "I think we just need to keep our options open. We know our worth."

Axel Novikov expresses interest in TGK-VK and Carlton.

Mats sulks back into the administrative office of the VK workshop, where Marko Kivinen — who's replaced his night-blue polo shirt with a salmon and yellow one in his new position as technical director for TGK — awaits, his arms crossed, his eyes sheltering expectation. "How'd that go?" he smiles. Bringing Axel to Vankkavalta had been his idea; while his personal relationship with the Abovian had never been particularly strong, as it hadn't been with... well, anyone else, bar Henrik, their working relationship at Iskabil-Ælund was not only solid, it was proven. Apparently, though, the familiar face had done little to sway the Avsidesliggendevuoretian.

Mats shakes his head. "Not good," he mutters, as his eyes suddenly turn to rage. "But of course it wasn't going to be good!" He hisses and lowers his voice. "Our car is a piece of shit! It's slow, it's heavy, it's long, its ugly —"

"Woah, woah! Relax, Mats," says Marko, lunging forward to catch the usually level-headed Abovian. "Things are different this year." The elder looks up at the championship-winning technical director. "The lineup was not great last year and it didn't help for development, that's for sure. But now... look at this!" His hands spread out towards the openness in the garage. The dingy workshop in Vankkavalta, while still decidedly plucky and low-budget in appearance, is bigger than it had been last year. A few tightly saran-wrapped machines and tools rest quietly in one of the darker corners of the warehouse. "We've got a new budget and new equipment —" he pauses, and brings his hands to his chest — "and you have us now, too. Third last in a championship of six, and two podiums: it certainly could have gone a lot worse, don't you think?"

Mats scratches the fine white hairs on the back of his head, shrugging. "Yes, that's true. But we have a lot of work to do this season. We need to do better, or else I'm sure I'll be out of a job." There's almost a twinge of desperation in his voice, his eyes nearly starting to glass up. "Sometimes, I think whether this was a good decision: putting this workshop to something that, well... that maybe we weren't ready for, after all."

"Relax, man," reassures Marko, his voice quiet and mellow, but uncharacteristically emotional. "You just follow my lead. We're going to turn this around — but first, we start with the drivers' seat." The team principal gazes at the Iskabil man, the question he's asking implicit in the silence. "We can't get rid of Ren, and Boludo was your only hope last year. That leaves us with no choice: Pajari is out. We need someone with experience."

Behind the thin walls of the prefabricated office inside the TGK workship, an intrepid Pajari bites his bottom lip and gasps. Fuck them, anyway. This year, at last, would be his year.

TGK-VK expresses interest in Axel Novikov and Sakiteno Kuyara, and sends a renewal offer to both Ren Watanabe and Malo Boludo.

Sakke Pajari contacts Sakite WSR to express interest in driving for the team.

by **Aboveland** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 10:01 pm

Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
Rally Rewind | 2nd Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

Introduction

The third edition of Brukkifordet-based Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland is back for the third season of the WSRC, with a slightly tweaked itinerary covering the same 481.3km and 27 special stages as the previous edition. Drivers will set off on the shakedown stage early on Friday morning, before setting off on a marathnoic first leg across the towering, treacherous massifs of central Aboveland, before days two and three open up on the country's legendary forest tracks. This year, the rally is marked by the return to rallying of three-time WGPC champion Terho Talvela, aboard a privately-entered Iskabil Skua XB4-SR.

Rally Rewind: 2nd Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

The second Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland kicked off a new era for the World Stage Rally Championship, with the three-day event format making its debut in the temple of rallying of central Aboveland. An expanded itinerary compared to the previous edition more than tripled the total stage kilometers, taking drivers across car-breaking mountain roads on day 1, quick, jumpy, and legendary lakeside tracks on day two, and the iconic, blisteringly-quick forest tests of day 3. The previous year's winner, Naomi Keretene, returned to defend her title alongside teammate and home hero Axel Novikov, on what would be the debut of Iskabil-Ælund World Rally Team's Iskabil Skua XB4-SR. Elsewhere on the start line, Koaiwan manufacturer Tatehama Giken Kogyo, in a technical partnership with Abovian tuners Vankkavalta Kyvyteslesbillettalli, fielded three cars in Abovian Sakke Pajari and debutants Ren Watanabe (KOI) and Malo Boludo (QUE). Together with Kalmarlundian-Darkmanian outfit AP-Deritee, which ran an all-rookie lineup, the two teams were the only fresh cars of the season.

Out of the blocks, it was debutants Södergren and AP-Deritee who topped the times on shakedown, ahead of home hero Axel Novikov and Togonistani teammate Naomi Keretene. Keretene would take full advantage of her experience and late starting position to claw her way to second overall after the first leg, just edging over Kassegrochian teammate Ivan Poldov, but not quite fast enough to beat shock leader Marisa Inyuseo of ENSADRINK. A steady start for new team TGK-VK saw all three of their drivers through the first leg — more than could be said for Aurunans Sport Mikuren, whose #84 car of Trevon Gallegos and Vicky Reotutar clouted a rock on Væltaamasikk, tearing off their rear suspension and incurring a six-minute time penalty going into day two.

As the rally opened up on day two, on the lakeside stages south of Brukkifordet, it was advantage Keretene in the battle for the lead, but only just. The Togonistani and Inyuseo shared blows in a thrilling sparring match all throughout the day, with the edge going to the Iskabil-Ælund driver by just over six seconds at the end of the day, trimming the Hodorans' lead to under 10 seconds before day three. Behind the leading duo, an inspired drive from Novikov enabled the then-reigning champion to leapfrog teammate Poldov into third, in an Iskabil 2-3-4. The blisteringly quick and jumpy stages of day two proved threatening to the season's rookies: Darkmanian Danyel Melander clipped the bridge on Skyrkinjärvi, tearing off his rear suspension and necessitating a frantic bout of roadside repairs to get back to service. Limping through the rest of the morning, the Darkmanian duo eventually made it through the day, albeit not without clipping the same bridge again in the afternoon. TGK's Pajari and Boludo were the biggest casualties of the day, with both drivers retiring early into the leg and incurring massive 20+ minute time penalties — the former after a hair-raising jump sent his TGK Albatross flying 90º up into the air and off the road — to join Camden's Leora Hargis on the sidelines.

Into day three, all eyes were set on the thrilling battle for the lead between Marisa Inyuseo and Naomi Keretene; it was first blood to Keretene after the Elvenuokkintie stage, chipping a second away from Inyuseo's lead, before the Hodoran fought back on the first pass through Kettulampi to edge ahead by just under a second. However, it was neither Inyuseo nor Keretene who were topping the stage times: ahead on the splits, an inspired Axel Novikov who, with nothing to lose and little to gain, had finally found his stride in his new Skua XB4-SR. Also corollary to the lead battle, a sensational drive from Koaiwan Ren Watanabe placed them in the mix of the top times amid a raging battle for the lead, the plucky Abovian-built Albatross evidently proving its pace on the treacherous, crested stages of day three. The battle for the win, however, took top honors throughout the leg, until an unexpected mistake from Keretene — perhaps overdriving to make up a growing deficit in the closing stages of the rally — sent her flying into the bushes and tumbling down the order. Ultimately, Keretene would go on to finish second, just five seconds ahead of teammate Novikov, and paving the way for an emphatic victory for ENSADRINK's Marisa Inyuseo and Sawano Mizeyuki: the Hodoran's second career win, and first in a full-length event.

Up next: Leg 1 stage guide

by **Quebec and Shingoryeo** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 1:15 am

Think of this scene from Top Gun: Maverick for rough visualisation of Bo and Charlotte's flight.

Boludo Ranch
Yoseo-Manitoba,
Quebec and Shingoryeo

Malo 'Bo' Boludo's in front of the wheels.

Okay well yes, and no.

Instead he was holding the joystick in front of the old-world cockpit, with the P-52 Bronco well into the cruising altitude. He looked around his surroundings a few times, his eyes feeling itchy this high up in the air, and his mind thinking through the calculations. He could see that from some distance away, he had everything to anticipate and worry about with the city of Los Pueblos out west about 50km away, and his 2,000-acre of Boludo Ranch out east. But he was still a relatively inexperienced pilot, and while the flight capability of this former escort fighter jet well suited to Bo's needs, the inherent risk in low-altitude flights was more than enough for him to be careful as well.

Let's take it slow, thought Bo, as he would look to find a route for him to safely land after an hour of flight with his wife, Charlotte de FitzLawrence. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, he would eventually circle around the distant, 1,000m runway within the Ranch, before descending against the wind.

Fortunately for Bo and Char, they would end up having a decent landing, with the shakiness of the 110 year old fighter countered by efficient landing procedure from the pilot at the end of the day. Steadily and sturdily the plane would land on the runway and Bo would pull back the joystick to call on breaks before it would come to eventual halt. It would then come to a stop, after which Bo and Charlotte, still not used to flying a former fighter, let alone a Bronco P-52, stayed and drew some heavy breath.

'Well, that could have gone worse,' said Charlotte, as the 34-year-old wife and industrial engineer removed her goggles and oxygen mask. 'We really need to get used to flying on Bronco P-52, don't we?'

Bo nodded right away, him also struggling to catch breath. 'Yes,' he answered. 'Obviously without the weapons and the radio it gets a bit easier but...you know the dangers when it comes to flying stuff like that. A bit out of our paygrade, so to say, and if things go wrong we might all be dead.'

'And it looks like we might not have to worry about flying a goddamn P-52 for next while,' said a familiar voice, as both Bo and Charlotte looked to their right. It was Charlotte's father, His Royal Highness Laurent, as the elderly man slowly walked towards them in a loose, white suit with naval pins. 'I'm sure you know what time of the motorsports cycle we will be entering, am I right?'

'Yes, yes...yes, dear sir,' answered Bo, as he tried his best not to stutter. Even after fourteen years of knowing the former naval commander, and almost a decade of being welcomed into his household, Bo wasn't exactly at the easiest of relations with his father-in-law, who by official terms wasn't Charlotte's father. Charlotte, in paper, only had one parent - alt-pop singer turned socialite Erina Roberge - and that had afforded them both convenience of not being associated with the royalty, and also inconveniences as to explain familial things when travelling out east. Needless to say that their time at Universite du Saguenay, where they were both applied mathematics students two cohorts apart, was last time when they really spent significant time out there.

He then opened his mouth again. 'TGK-VK has called us back for the next round?' he asked.

'Absolutely,' Prince Laurent smiled back at his son-in-law, who he held great respect for after handling his temper, that being Laurent's very own, for some time now. Of course, Laurent would not exactly admit it and he wasn't alone - his other son in-laws had it worse in past. 'Both the Abovians and the Koaiwans there have said that they expect you to be bad running as soon as possible. Can you answer them back please?'

'Sure, dad,' Charlotte said back, the short, blonde woman looking a bit closer to Laurent than Erina the more time would pass. Perhaps the product of having strong temper, and being the one in charge wherever they went would do that. 'Anybody else approved to register for the competition this year? I know the WGP2 are still being figured out, and NSSCRA is still two years away? At least not until we will be done with the WSRC I suppose.'

'Ah, yes, there will be,' Laurent said. 'I hear that their names are Alejandro Rusegara and Sandro Moh. Like you, they have come out of Jolbo (shortened term for Jolbonopolis) scene and will be looking to race with and against their idol, I've heard. Those after you indeed look up to you two, after all.'

'I think I have heard of that name, yes sir,' Bo answered, though the knowledge was mostly kept to the news of the racers' pursuits within the Quebecois domestic and Commonwealth level competitions. 'The Kirungan kid really looks up to me, and I'm glad that he's having a blast on and off the tracks as well. As a friend of Didier Garnacho would.' Now, whether he was open to get into the heart of it was another story. While one of the prominent superstars of the motorsports community here, perhaps even the brightest, Bo disliked chasing drama and would prefer not to know most names in order to avoid being involved into dramas ever so common on the motorsports circuit. He's already been there, being burned at various points by Ilya Tsunopin's attention-seeking ways, and being a father of two, he had not wanted to risk such bugs transmitting into his private life after all. 'Will that pair be interesting, at least?'

His father-in-law just chuckled. 'I suppose you could say that,' he answered with a gracious smile. 'I think you'll like Rusegara and Moh a lot. But for now, let's have ourselves an early dinner and start planning through our next steps...'

Boludo/De FitzLawrence will be back with TGK-VK.

Furthermore, Rusegara/Moh pair is now available for preseason tests and/or negotiation with the WSRC teams.

by **Valentine Z** » Mon Sep 11, 2023 8:13 am

Part 1 – Ring 'Round the Rallying Rosies.

Wing Commander Angeline Joyce Crystal Bella Wv “A Estrela Alegre” Samara A. Safira Tamara Annie Estefania Carolina Tavares Alencar Melissa Clemente Teixeira Vanda Regina Mik Nogueira woke up to her morning alarm, one that she gave on a regular basis for an exercise around her neighbourhood. Getting into her fitness attire, and then punching a few numbers and configurations onto her fitness watch, she exited her home and planned to jog along the nice countryside of Brazil, bringing a small hiking bag with enough water to last her by. Her notifications were of nothing special, with no standing orders or outstanding tasks from the Valentian Air Forces, nor from one Gwen Tracer Allison Oxton. "Well, another normal day it is!" she thought to herself. Trekking through the forests and the dirt trails, and without a pair of earphones to mask away the sounds of nature, Angeline could not help but wonder and imagine the roaring sounds of motors – specifically, the ones from the rally cars. On one of those events, this was part of the track that she, Augustine, and the others would use for a domestic event or two. To say that herself and Augustine have been phenomenal in terms of teamwork would have been an understatement. Since the very first day they did their first international rally (WSRC 1), she simply clicked with that man, the two of them keeping a good friendship outside of the professional one during the seasons. She missed that feeling, even with the domestic events that have been regularly going on. "It's been like a few years, at least, for us," she thought once again to herself, making a turn here and there, having currently ran 10.93 kilometres as indicated by her watch, with 41 minutes elapsed. The warm and slightly humid weather combined with the nice and cool winds occasionally giving her the second winds was passable enough, so Angeline continued on, frequently coming across other Valentian and non-Valentian hikers, joggers, and groups of family along the way. It was a slow but nice and sunny day so far.

As she grew a bit more tired, she stopped running and called it for a day, then continued on to slowly walk around the place. The area – a nice national park that is somewhat secluded from the green-but-still-urbanized cities, but not that isolated – was teeming and populated with Valentians from all over the world, and non-Valentians from all over the multiverse who have decided to spend their holidays here. It was a serene sight to behold as always, and Angeline was happy to see all this, offering to take a couple of photos for the groups of people and families. She was tired, but the amount of adrenaline from the exercise was still keeping her going, embracing the afternoon sun that was admittedly getting warmer and to avoid strenuous exercises in these timings. With one last sip from the water bag as it dried up, Angeline went to the nearby toilet to wash her arms and her face, missing a notification from her watch in the meantime; she was simply fixated at the progress that she made for that moment, still fascinated even after all these decades by the accuracy of the Valentians' global positioning systems, down to 0.01 cm.

Just then, she received another notification from her phone. Wiping her hands and unlocking her phone, Angeline was thrilled with the message she received. It might have been just a few days since they have talked to each other, but nonetheless, having received a message from Augustine gave her the energy and motivation even after the tiring morning exercise. "Hey, Angeline! How are you? Hope you've been well and all that!" the message started off quite informally, then it was followed by the piece of news, one that she has been looking forward to for a while. "The third Rally season is starting, was trying to give you a call right now, but I guess you were doing your morning exercise, so anyway! Yeah, what do you say? Let me know soon though, I want to make sure that we are signed up very quickly as drivers, and then we can move on from there and do the tryouts or whatever." Angeline replied back in a heartbeat, indicating her interest and soon afterwards, Augustine and Angeline were signed up for WSRC 03 as the driver-codriver. The only thing that is left then is for them to look at the teams, and then go for tryouts.

A few days later, the two of them were in Angeline's room, with Augustine having took a portal from Italy to Brazil. With a laptop in each of their hands, they have been looking at the signups and the schedule of the races. "Well, first things first," Augustine started off, "I wouldn't worry too much about what happened in the previous season. I know, we did pretty badly with a 2nd last finish, but hey, there are always future seasons, and this is going to be one of them, one that I am sure that we will get further," he trailed off for a while, obviously not wanting to jinx the whole thing, so he went back to looking at the open internet browser tabs on his laptop and showing Angeline what is up, "Bad news first: I don't see ENSADRINK anywhere. I believe we drove for them for two seasons at this point, and they are no show for this season, as far as I can see. Still, that's okay, ain't it? We are not that tied too much to one team to the point that we won't participate until they are. You agree?" Angeline nodded passionately, "Yeah, other teams are good! So what are the other teams that are around? Oh, and yes, what are the good news?" Augustine replied and added on, "So far, not a lot of drivers have been signed up yet, so we have plenty of opportunity so far. 5 teams are there, as you can see, and only 2 drivers so far. I mean, I have a few names in mind, but I would like to hear from you as well, of course; you are as equally important as me, being a co-driver and a good friend." Angeline smiled with a small blush, and then looked at the teams. With five teams, choices were a bit limited.

Angeline picked bet.koi TGK-VK WRT first, then Sakite WSR RD Project, and finally, Carlton. "Their colors are nice, and on top of that, well, the description is promising, you know what I mean? Increase in funding, the progress, and the whole nine yards. Then Sakite feels familiar, maybe they are not congruent to ENSADRINK at all- at least, not as far as I know, but I believe both of them are from the same country. So I think we can get a hint of familiarity! Then Carlton, I mean, why not I guess, haha! That same country that, to my knowledge, brought quite a lot of talented folks in Grand Prix, and they are not going to be slouches in Rally either." Augustine, on the other hand, went with Sakite WSR RD Project first, citing the same reasoning as Angeline; this was then followed by Billingshurst Motors Rally Team because of their promising history as well; and then, finally, bet.koi TGK-VK WRT. "All of them are solid choices, I will give it that," Augustine added on, "But whether or not we will be able to get in, well, we will have to try. Maybe not all of them, or it would look desperate on our end. Maybe we pick three, then see what's what."

Augustine Lorenzo Vinto Silas Imparato and Angeline Joyce Estefania Mik Nogueira contacted bet.koi TGK-VK WRT to express interest in driving for their team, along with going for the tryouts.
Augustine Lorenzo Vinto Silas Imparato and Angeline Joyce Estefania Mik Nogueira contacted Sakite WSR RD Project to express interest in driving for their team, along with going for the tryouts.
Augustine Lorenzo Vinto Silas Imparato and Angeline Joyce Estefania Mik Nogueira contacted Billingshurst Motors Rally Team to express interest in driving for their team, along with going for the tryouts.

by **The Kytler Peninsulae** » Tue Sep 12, 2023 4:54 am

With news that the West Pavola Rally has officially been announced as a candidate race for WSRC 03 - with insiders reported as saying it should make the final calendar - Dizabeg Whaariny was excited for the prospect of appearing in the biggest rallying competitions of them all.

But the tricky bit was getting a seat. All five remaining teams - a sixth having already departed - seemed very cagey in formalising their lineup, for some reason. Nobody seemed quite sure who to take. Just two drives had been formally confirmed as taken; thirteen remained, but there were still more drivers than that on the open market.

The real problem was how quiet the tryout circuit seemed to be, and with this being new territory for Whaariny - and the way he was influenced by his father being a very public enemy who hid away from the spotlight for some time, to say nothing of how the whole country had been doing the same his whole childhood - getting his name out proved tricky. There was media coverage of his background, and of the story behind the West Pavola Rally possibly coming to be, and he'd heard that this was directly responsible for securing Whaariny a coveted RPD supply. But that meant nothing without a drive, and he'd spent that childhood being warned of RPD as a bogeyman in all the right-wing media...

Somehow, he had to get some sort of opportunity. Somewhere. A short tryout may not be the best environment for him, given that his approach was not about the outright speed that shows up in a short trial but the avoidance of mistakes that add danger over the course of a rally weekend... but he could point to his historically reliable domestic record, and he knew that team information on these drivers was really rather good, so they'd be aware of that too. Most of the team cars seemed to have been pretty similar this time too - Sport Mikuren-Viska were believed to have the least reliable but also fastest car, but besides that very little separated the teams on the vehicular front in most eyes - so it really was a case of seeking any opportunity, out of the belief that any drive would stand a chance of being competitive.

He just had to let people know.

Dizabeg Whaariny and co-driver Jean Portier are open to tryout invitations of all kinds from all teams, with Sakite WSR RD Project as their tentative first preference.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:59 am

"You know what all of this boils down to?" John Watt asked. "It's the fact that your car is the only one that's breaking down all the time this season, man. I mean, if everyone else in Mikuren was going through the same problems, if Kalö and Laila had their cars conking out at the same regularity that yours does, this wouldn't even be a 'you' issue. It would be a Mikuren issue. But it's not. And because you're the only one whose car keeps breaking down, you're supposed to take all those punches in the chin and acknowledge that it's just bad luck. Hey Tre, you wanna know why I think you've been made the sacrificial lamb?" John asked.

"I don't think I want to," Trevon Gallegos shook his head.

"I'll tell you anyway," John continued, as if he hadn’t heard his friend say anything at all. "Every team has a point in their history where they have to choose which of their drivers to support and which ones they'll have to put by the wayside, okay? The first choice is always going to be the local drivers. If the team has got an academy, their academy drivers will get the backing, no questions asked. If the team doesn't have an academy, then someone from the same country as the team gets top billing. If there are no local drivers in the team, then someone from a country with a history of rally racing or someone with the raw skills will get the special treatment. In this hypothetical team, which we shall call Youkuren, we already have the locals—Aurinen—and the rally experts—Raatikainen. Where does that leave you, Trevon? Nowhere, that's where. Compared to those two, what are you? A reality TV star. Nothing more, nothing less. A TV star is little better than a pay driver in these circles. In fact, they're even worse. With a pay driver, the team might actually try to treat them good because the money the pay driver is bringing might be the only thing keeping that team afloat, you get what I mean? But a reality star? Good luck getting anything resembling good treatment! Look, man, let's face facts here. You're clearly the third driver here, and that's why your car is the one being sacrificed every race."

“Just shut the fuck up, man, please,” Tre said. “Shut the fuck up. You’re not making any of this any easier.”

“I’m just saying, man, you’ve got more than enough reason not to go back to Mikuren if ever they’re stupid enough to ask for you once again,” John continued. “I’m just reminding you of all the bullshit that happened to you and Vicky in that team so you won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“Trust me, Johnny, I don’t need any reminders of the shit that I had to sit through with Mikuren,” Tre insisted. “And even if they were stupid or desperate enough to try to sign me and Vicky for another season, I’m not desperate enough to jump right back in with them. If this season goes on without me getting any offers at all from another team, I’m just fine with that.”

“Then why in the world did you decide to register for the new season if you’re not really interested in driving anyway?”

“I mean, you never really know, do you?” Tre shrugged. “You don’t know what this new season is going to bring. I don’t know what the new season is going to bring. Sure, at the end of last season, Billingshurst approached me to help them build a car that could actually be competitive in WSRC. But even they aren’t so stupid as to sign me as one of their drivers because you’ve seen what I did when things weren’t going my way. Everyone’s seen it too. Nobody wants that kind of shit in their team if they can help it.”

“But why did you do it though?” John asked. “Why did you sign up for WSRC again if you knew that no one would want to touch you with a ten-foot pole because of the bullshit you pulled last season?”

“I don’t actually know, man,” Tre admitted after being silent for a few moments. “I don’t really know. Maybe it’s because I want to prove a point. Maybe I want to prove that if you get me out of that piece of crap Mikuren and put me in a car that’s actually held together by something stronger than tissues and glue then I might actually be able to do something other than fail to finish more than half of the legs throughout the season. Maybe I want to prove that I’m more than just a TV star who thinks he’s the hottest shit. That’s not too much for me to ask though, is it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it is?” John shrugged. “Maybe you should have shown everyone what you’ve got in your tank, what made you win bloody Rally Star, before you pulled any of that ‘wah wah, I’m being sabotaged!’ shit. But really though, Tre, what in the world were you thinking when you crashed your car into a bloody tree whenever the fuck it happened?”

“I wasn’t thinking, all right?” Tre replied. “That’s it. That’s the truth. I wasn’t thinking. I was so pissed off about all the shit that’s happened that I just said, ‘fuck it!’ Mikuren didn’t want to fix the car so I gave them a reason to fix it. Not that they actually did anything to actually fix anything other than the engine that I literally smashed into a tree, but you get what I’m saying, right? Right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I get you, man,” John nodded. “But fucking hell, man. People have died in these stage rally races before. You really didn’t have to pull that bullshit with the hitting the tree and shit. Imagine if you or Vicky got hurt when you did that, or worse.”

“Like I said, I wasn’t thinking at all when I did it,” Tre repeated. “Maybe I wanted Mikuren to just straight up fire me. I would have had to deal with far less stress if that had happened.”

“And give everyone even less chances of seeing you do your stuff?” John said. “Yep, that’s definitely the smart thing for you to do. Look, I know that your time with Mikuren was maybe the worst few months of your life so far,” John continued when he saw Tre shaking his head once again. “But it wasn’t all doom and gloom over there at the end of the day, right? At least you and Vicky finally managed to win a leg.”

“Yeah, a leg,” Tre shot back. “One single leg of a three-leg rally is all that I won in the whole of WSRC last season. Just one leg! And it was at the end of the season when literally everything had already been wrapped up for your damned crush Keretene! Too little too bloody late! Fuck me, just thinking about all of that is making my blood boil once again. Gah! So many months wasted! And for what? What did Mikuren prove by not taking care of me or the car? I really hope for their sake that whatever it was that they wanted to prove by not fixing my car, it was all worth it in the end.”

“Well now, Tre, now that you’ve said that, there’s actually something that I’ve just remembered,” John said. “Remember how there was this talk of a curse in Mikuren, how the Kimi-Suomi dude with Raatikainen–I can’t remember his name off the top of my head–told off everyone else for believing that there was such a thing as a curse, and how we all laughed it off as some stupid bullshit or whatever? What if there is such a thing as a curse, and Mikuren didn’t fix your car so that everything would go to you and your car and not anyone else’s?”

“Now you’re just talking absolute nonsense,” Tre shook his head again. “Look, whatever it was that was actually going on behind the scenes in Mikuren last year, I want no part in it anymore. I don’t care if they’re desperate for drivers and I’m the only free agent left in the market; I’d rather sit out the entire season than drive a single meter for those guys again.”

“That’s certainly a choice,” John muttered. “One of the choices of all time, if I may say so myself. I really hope that you don’t come to regret it.”

“Trust me, I’m not gonna regret a single thing, as long as Mikuren are the only team still searching for a driver at the end of preseason,” Tre said. “In fact, I would even say that I’d be more worried about WSRC deciding that keeping me around isn’t worth the trouble that they think is going to come with me back in the series. And I’ll be the first one to tell anyone who’s willing to listen that as long as I’m in a car that doesn’t fall apart at the seams as soon as someone looks at it the wrong way, I won’t do anything or stir up shit. I just don’t want a car that keeps breaking down on me. Is that really too much to ask?”

“It will be if you don’t show any sort of good results when someone finally gives you a halfway decent car,” John muttered. “If someone decides to give you a half decent car.”

The two men then continued the rest of the way to their respective houses, which were located on the same plot of land on the right side of the street. At the time that Tre and John had pooled their money together to buy the property on the western outskirts of the city of Markovsky, only the streets had been laid down and there were only a handful of houses scattered throughout the neighborhood. But today, the street was filled with houses; anyone and everyone who could afford to buy some land and leave the inner city had already done so, making the neighborhood look like a Western-style suburb with all of the cookie cutter bungalows and cottages lining the streets. However, one thing that both men did notice during the walk back to their homes was the fact that it seemed to be unnaturally quiet on their street. It was four in the afternoon on a weekend; there were usually a handful of people doing all sorts of stuff in front of their houses, and the children would usually be playing whatever games they were playing. But there was no one else on the street apart from Tre and John. There were a handful of SUVs painted black parked on the side of the street, most of which looked like they were parked close to or beside Tre and John’s houses. “I wonder what’s going on over here,” John muttered as he looked at one of the SUVs.

“I don’t know, man, and honestly, I don’t think I really care all that much,” Tre said. “I just want to sit down and close my eyes and not think too much or too hard about what’s going to happen in the WSRC this season.”

Of course, just as he said that, they were met by two other men who had come down the pathway leading from Tre and John’s homes to the street. Both of the men that had come to meet Tre and John looked like they were military types, although they were not wearing the same clothes at all. One man wore what could be described as the “standard” getup of a gun-for-hire: black long-sleeved sweater, olive cargo pants, tan boots, and a gray beanie. The other man looked like he came from the set of an alternate history movie or TV series as he was wearing a long black coat with white straps crossing over his chest, white trousers, black leather boots reaching up to his knees, and a bicorne hat. The man in the beanie raised his right hand to command both Tre and John to stop, and then he opened his mouth to speak. “Which one of you is Trevon Gallegos?” he asked in a gruff voice and a distinctly Slavic accent.

“Who’s asking?” Tre asked back. “Who wants to know?”

“I am asking the questions here,” Beanie said back. “And now I won’t ask again. Which one is Trevon Gallegos?”

John Watt’s left hand immediately shot up and pointed to the man on his right. “That’s him,” he said without hesitation. “That’s him right there. That’s Trevon Gallegos.”

“You bloody bastard,” Tre muttered. “You’re actually dropping me that quick.”

“Come with me,” Beanie commanded. “Someone wants to talk to you.” But the man didn’t even wait for Tre to respond before he grabbed Trevon’s arm and began to drag him towards the house. “Francois, take the other guy as well,” he told the man in the old-timer uniform.

“Whoa, whoa, wait, wait! You don’t want me!” Johnny called out as the other man grabbed him as well. “It’s him you want!” But neither man listened as they brought, or more accurately dragged, both Tre and John towards the house on the left side of their property. As they went down the path, both Tre and John saw that there were even more men standing in and around the property, and all sorts of unpleasant thoughts began to cross Tre’s mind. He and John had left the girls behind when they went to take care of Tre’s application for the new season of WSRC, and the possibility that a bunch of armed men would come to the property looking for him. Tre had no idea what these men could possibly want from him, and at this point in time he wasn’t that keen on finding it out as well.

The four men entered the house, although it was more of Tre and John getting shoved into the house by the men. Those two didn’t follow Tre and John inside; instead they closed the door behind them and left Tre and John to their own fates.

“Trevon Gallegos, I presume?” a voice from the other end of the living room asked.

“Who wants to know?” Tre said back with a lot more bravery than he actually felt. “Where’s Vicky and Daisy? Did you do anything to them?”

“Your wife, your friend’s stepsister and I have been doing a little talking,” the voice replied. “Please, sit down. I’m sure that you two are tired from all that walking that you’ve just done.”

“What the fuck is going on here, man?” John asked Tre in a low voice.

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Tre muttered back before the two of them decided to comply with the voice and walk towards one of the two sofas in the living room, specifically the one where two women were seated. The other sofa was occupied by a lone man who looked to be in his mid-fifties, and Tre had a feeling that he didn’t want anyone else sitting with him at the moment. Well, that and the fact that there was another mismatched pair of men in a beanie and a bicorne hat standing behind him as well.

Tre sat down beside the woman with the black hair and the tan skin, his wife and stage rally racing co-driver Victoria “Vicky” Reotutar. She looked more surprised than scared about the whole situation with all the armed men in and around the house. “Are you okay?” Tre asked her. “These men didn’t do anything to you or Daisy?”

“No, no, we’re just fine,” Vicky shook her head, and her tone suggested that that was indeed the case. “These guys just barged into the house five, maybe ten minutes after you and Johnny left, and then their head guy just decided to make himself some tea, and that’s all that we’ve been doing since. Just waiting for you two to come back so he can finally talk about what he wants to talk about.”

“You don’t know what he wants to talk to me about?” Tre asked.

“No,” Vicky shook her head again. “He’s been avoiding the subject, saying he’d rather wait until you were here.”

Throughout all of that, the man on the other couch calmly watched them as he sipped his tea. He took one more sip before he set the cup down on the counter and cleared his throat. “I apologize for the method by which my men have introduced themselves,” he said. “But that’s what happens when you just barely miss the man whom you want to meet.”

“All right, man, what’s going on here?” Tre asked. “Who are you? Why do you want to meet me? And why is it so important that you’re willing to come to my home with all of your minions and talk to me face to face about it?”

“I was just about to get to that, Mr. Gallegos,” the man replied, not bothered or not caring at all about the fact that Tre had just interrupted him. “As I was saying, my name is Ivan Iosifovich Radchenko. You may have heard of my name if you’ve been watching the world news. Or maybe you haven’t. Sometimes I prefer to work in anonymity. However, anonymity is actually working against me with regards to this… contract that I had hoped to secure a few months ago. I have had my eyes on this contract for a good amount of time now, but due to the anonymity under which I had so loved operating, the other party isn’t even aware that they have a contract for me. Do you get what I’m saying, Mr. Gallegos?”

“No, I don’t think I do,” Tre replied with a shake of his head. Now his apprehension had turned into a mix of curiosity and confusion. He truly didn’t understand what exactly was going on, and why the leader of a notorious private military company was in his house about to try to talk him into doing… something. Quite what that something was going to be, Tre didn’t know yet, but he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be something that he would want to do.

“I’ll tell you anyway,” Radchenko continued. “I want you to join Carlton Motors of Tumbra for the coming WSRC season.”

“Wait, what?!” Tre asked, his confusion growing ever deeper. “Is that it? Is that all that you want me to do? Join Carlton?”

“Yes, that’s all,” Radchenko nodded. “However, I do understand that simply saying that you want to join a team in WSRC doesn’t mean that you actually get to join that team. But I have belief in you. Faith, even. I have faith that you have what it takes to get into Carlton Motors.”

“What’s so important about Carlton Motors for you anyway?” Tre asked. “And what do you want me to do there when I get in? If I get in?”

“You don’t really have to do anything other than actually getting into the team,” Radchenko replied. “I’m not going to ask you to do anything that you’re not comfortable doing. Besides, the rally team isn’t really what I want. What I want is access to Tumbra itself. See, I am of the belief that there is a massive opportunity for my company and my men to be had at a place called the Tumbran Northlands. I’ve only heard the barest of details about the place, no idea about the security arrangements in that area of Esportiva. But if they are in need of one such arrangement, my men and I are more than prepared and equipped to provide it. The boys were all ready and raring to go in Mlima Kijani, but that was a deal that never worked out simply because Mlima Kijani didn’t know that I was offering one. But this time is going to be different. At least I hope it’s going to be different. You get into Carlton, Mr. Gallegos, and I will make sure that your time there will be much more pleasant than what happened in Mikuren.”

Trevon Gallegos and Victoria Reotutar express their interest to join Carlton Motorsports.

by **Copper Cuprum** » Fri Sep 15, 2023 6:29 am

Billingshurst Motors confirms the pair of Narasim Cavuqu and Detlef Heidigger as their first signing.

Billingshurst Motors offers the pair of Axel Novikov and H. A. Baardsen a place in the team.

Billingshurst Motors offers the pair of Alejandro Rusegara and Sandro Moh a place in the team.

Billingshurst Motors acknowledges the interest from the pair of Augustin Imparato and Angeline Nogueira and will keep them in mind should the deals mentioned above fail to materialize.

A dark blue Luxur Chief grand tourer car drove up the driveway of a large mansion located five kilometers to the east of the city of Ons Deg, located on the northern shores of the island of Copper Cuprum, which was the location of the chiefdom of the same name. There were two occupants in the GT, the driver and his passenger. The driver took the car up the driveway at a rapid pace, not too quick to actually cause an incident but just quick enough to put that particular thought in the mind of someone watching the scene.

The Luxur drove up to the main door of the mansion, and the servant had to jump out of the way in order not to get run over. The driver hit the brakes just in time to put the rear doors right in line with the front doors of the mansion. Once the servant had regained his composure, he made for the rear door and opened it, and a lean muscular man in a custom-fitted suit with waistcoat stepped out of the vehicle. He nodded his thanks at the servant and made his way towards the front doors of the mansion, and another servant opened the doors so that the man's entry would be uninterrupted. Another man, also wearing a three-piece suit, was sitting inside the massive living room reading a newspaper. He didn't look up when the other man walked in, but he did acknowledge the arrival by saying, “You're just in time, my friend. We have got a lot to talk about.”

“I already felt your excitement when we were still on the phone,” said Narasim Cavuqu, the man who arrived at the mansion. “And, judging by your posture and body language, the excitement is still in there somewhere.”

“And I am happy to know that you've still retained your sense of humor even after winning an endurance championship in Auruna,” replied Count Tabuwa Tawufo, the man who had been reading the papers before Cavuqu's arrival. Tawufo folded up the newspaper and set it down on the table in front of him as he turned to face Cavuqu. “In all seriousness though, Cavuqu, we really do need to talk,” the count said. “We've already had some interesting developments, and the season hasn't even begun yet.”

“Developments?” Cavuqu asked with some skepticism. “Do you really consider two driver teams being signed to their respective teams as developments? One driver signed back with the team that they drove for last season, and the other driver signed for the team that's from the same country as them. If you consider that a development, I wonder how you would react to an actual bombshell.”

“I'm not just talking about Laila and Sophie signing for Mikuren and Carlton respectively,” Tawufo replied. “The one that I want to talk about is more of an... internal development.”

“How internal are we talking about?” Cavuqu asked as he sat down across the table from Tawufo. “Our cars didn't just spontaneously combust back at the factory, did they?”

“By the honorable ancestors, Cavuqu, don't put that evil on us!” Tawufo cried out. “We already had that hothead Trevon help out with development. If his ability to turn cars into paper has been passed on to our equipment, I have no one but you to blame. It was your idea to get Trevon to help us develop the car. If his curse has been passed on to Billingshurst, I will personally make sure that you will never drive for this team again and at the same time sign Trevon to a ten-year contract with no exit clause so that he will suffer the consequences of his actions for the rest of his miserable career.”

“You are so dramatic, Tawufo,” Cavuqu muttered as he shook his head. “I was only trying to make a joke, and you just had to escalate the whole damn thing. Why are you taking this so seriously? Well, more seriously than all of the other things you take seriously as well?”

“If anything, Cavuqu, you're the one who's not treating this whole thing as seriously as you should,” Tawufo replied. “For the first time in a long time, the Chiefdom has a gilt-edged chance to make a mark on the rest of the multiverse. We thought we would do it through football. We thought we would do it through rugby league. And sure, you could make the argument that we've already made our mark through rugby league, but at the end of the day, people don't remember much about us except for the fact that we kill chickens before our matches as an offering to the gods to grant us victory. Thankfully, such barbarity hasn't made its way to motorsports yet, and I would like to keep it that way. But to get back to my point, for the first time in forever, Billingshurst finally has a chance to step out of the shadow of Luxur and UrGa and make a name for itself in a competition where those communists know that we have them beat. That is why I'm taking this whole WSRC thing so seriously. That's why I don't want our cars to break down as much as Trevon's equipment did in the WSRC season before this one. UrGa's reputation has always been that their cars never break down. I don't want Billingshurst to be simply compared to that. I want Billingshurst to be able to stand on its own two feet, and the first step in doing that is to make sure that our cars don't break down if you sneeze inside one.”

“Don't you think this is important to me as well, Tawufo?” Cavuqu shot back. “For the first time in my career, I will be in a competition that will be seen by a vast majority of the whole multiverse, not just some small corner of it. I want to do the Chiefdom proud. I want to do Billingshurst proud. And I want to do myself proud as well. You are right that one of the ways to do that is to be sure that my car won't break down on me when I need it the most. But of course it's much more than just that, man. Much, much more.”

“I see that your time in Auruna has given you the hunger for even more silverware,” Tawufo noted. “And I cannot fault you for that. Even though Billingshurst has already won many championships in the Coalition, nothing will ever beat winning an actual multiversal motorsports competition. UrGa already proved that when they won the WGPC constructors' championship just a few months ago. Vasily was still celebrating the victory the last that I heard. Now imagine us and Billingshurst doing the same thing in WSRC. Not only will it put Billingshurst on the map, it will put Copper Cuprum on the map. Imagine the rewards that the Chief will heap upon us for such a feat. You could become a count. I could be granted a duchy! Medals and orders! The possibilities are endless!”

“And now the truth has finally come out,” Cavuqu muttered. “This whole thing was just a very elaborate setup for you to get your hands on more titles from the Chief, isn't it?”

“But you can't tell me that the thought hadn't crossed your mind though,” Tawufo said.

“Of course I have,” Cavuqu responded. “But unlike you, it's not my primary motivation for winning this competition.” Cavuqu then took a deep breath and sighed slowly. “Anyway, I think we've talked enough about other things,” he said after a few moments. “Let's come back to the reason why we're here in the first place. What was the development that got you so excited over the phone earlier?”

“Yes, of course,” Tawufo nodded his head. “Thank you for reminding me of that, Cavuqu. Anyway, as I was saying before we both let ourselves get derailed, we already have our first applicant for one of the two vacancies in the team. However, I have to admit that they don’t exactly fit the profile of who we’re looking for.”

“You could at least have the decency to give me their names before you go on about how they don’t fit the profile or whatnot,” Cavuqu said. “Are they someone who was on our radar at the very least?”

“I don’t know if being on the radar is the right word to describe them,” Tawufo admitted. “But the first applicants for the team are Augustine and Angeline from Valentine Z.”

“Oh, by the gods!” Cavuqu muttered in undisguised disappointment. “Not those two! You’re right, Tawufo. Those two don’t fit the profile at all. They’re part of the ‘just happy to be here’ crowd! They’re not what Billingshurst needs, and they’re not even what Billingshurst wants!”

“You could have just said you didn’t want them and leave it at that, Cavuqu,” Tawufo noted. “You didn’t have to explain to me right here and now why you didn’t want to work with those two.”

“I just wanted to make it clear to you now in case it wasn’t back then,” Cavuqu said. “As I see things, there are only two kinds of drivers: those who want to win, and those who are only happy to be there. I’ve been paying some attention to the team of Augustine and Angeline last season, and I’ve seen enough for me to put them in the latter category. And we already made a deal a few months before, Tawufo. We only want drivers who want to win in this team.”

“Who would you consider to be drivers who want to win then?” Tawufo asked. “We’re not exactly spoiled for choice, you know.”

“Axel Novikov,” Cavuqu replied without hesitation. “Now there’s a man who wants to win. Yes, Tawufo, he’s already won before. He’s won rallies, and he’s helped win the constructors’ title for Aelund last season. Normally, the thought of such a name potentially joining a new outfit like Billingshurst would be basically unthinkable, but because of what happened to their sponsor, Axel no longer has a team at the moment. And I believe that Axel is a driver that will pursue any opportunity to keep winning. Now that is a man that I would want to drive alongside with for this season.”

“So you want Axel and don’t want Augustine,” Tawufo nodded. “That’s good to know. “But that’s only two drivers for Billingshurst if Axel does agree to sign for us. We need a third driver to fill out this team. I need a third name. Do you have anyone else in mind?”

“You might call me crazy for saying this, Tawufo,” Cavuqu said, “but I actually quite like the look of Alejandro Rusegara. Now I must admit that I haven’t seen enough of Alejandro to judge whether he belongs in the ‘wants to win it all’ camp or the ‘just happy to be here’ camp, but he is one guy on whom I am willing to take that risk. If Alejandro is just another one who’s happy to be here, it’s no great loss to us. Only the top two drivers in the team get credit for their results at the end of the day. But if we do not get Axel into this team, then that is where I unfortunately cannot help any further. I want him in the team, but if he doesn’t want to be in the team, then I don’t know who else in the list of free agents I can consider to be drivers who also want to win.”

“You leave the sticky parts of driver recruitment to me, Cavuqu,” Tawufo assured the other man. “Just give me the name, and I will take care of the details. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? Both Axel and Alejandro say no? It doesn’t really matter whether they actually sign for us or not, but if we don’t ask them, we’ll never know the answer. Wasn’t it something that someone said once? You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take? Well, this is Billingshurst taking a shot at one of the three drivers who helped win the WSRC constructors’ title last season. Just imagine what kind of a coup that would be for us. First timers, in WSRC at least, nabbing one of the biggest names in the sport. We would make our mark in the competition almost immediately!”

“And isn’t that what you always wanted, Tawufo?” Cavuqu asked with a smile. “Mind you, you still have to convince the fellow on the merits of joining Billingshurst before you go celebrating already. We could still end up with two drivers who are just happy to be here. And that’s not what’s going to put Billingshurst on the map, is it?”

NOTE: In Copperite culture, all individuals are referred to by their given names no matter if they are actually Copperite or not. Copperites treat surnames as clan names and therefore think that referring to a person by their surname is extremely impolite, implying that the individual represents the entirety of the clan/surname.

by **Auruna** » Sat Sep 16, 2023 3:54 am

Sport Mikuren Rally
Nisko, Auruna

During the pre-season, while Juri is busy with his part in the driver selection for Mikuren, the team took delivery of their new equipment with Technical Director Mick Körä already inspecting all three plain pink Kanas lined up inside the team's garage alongside the technicians. Working with a new partner, they didn't expect the speedy delivery after experiencing several delays in the previous season. It was a sudden surprise and the entire team knew that they just need to make sure that nothing suspicious is going on. And after an extensive inspection of all three cars as well as the first few batches of the the new AHI-Livanen K442T/S3 engines that they will be using to power the cars, Mick cleared all units with one of the Kanas immediately taken to the paint shop to get dressed in Mikuren's livery with the other two to wait their turn.

While their new setup is expected to be better than their previous Schkeska-built cars, there are still doubts about the reliability of both the chassis and the engines as it is a completely new and unique pairing. Mick, wanting to see how the new cars would perform, gathered his team as well as Laila Raatikainen and Pehr Henrik Blomqvist to stage a test in a local forest road soon after the #77 car was out of the paint shop. With permission from the MNA, and Juri, they were given a lot of freedom in their test which meant that Laila was allowed to drive around wherever she wants in her own pace with only one order from Mick, "Aruatta toramaa." ("Don't crash." in the Nisko dialect of Aurun)

And as Mick steps back, he gives the pair a thumbs up, signaling to them to go. Immediately after seeing the signal, Laila accelerates off into the distance and toward the forest with the new AHI-Livanen engines providing a familiar yet different tune as it echoes from the trees. Not too long after they set off, the pair returned to the mechanics for some tweaks to the setup before continuing with the test, repeating the actions until they were satisfied with the results.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Juri took a second look at the updated driver entry list trying to see if he missed anyone of interest. However, it didn't take too long as he soon found Laura Haukanna's entry for WSRC3 alongside promising rookie talent Aiki Vorlen as her co-driver. This is big news to them as they knew she is a great driver and due to her connections to Viska and being Kälö's co-driver in the previous season, it would be easy to sign her to Mikuren with an added bonus of getting the Haukanna name back in rally which would be a hit with the local fans. It's a big win for Mikuren if they couldn't get Kälö into the team.

But before that, Juri finally took action starting with something they couldn't do before, something different for a change. With backing from Viska, Mikuren could finally afford to do driver trials, or as they call it, auditions (used because of their parent company, Studio Mikuren). With that, Juri sends an email to Sakke Pajari and Jarkko Kalliomäki inviting them to a private test, knowing that it would be a huge risk if the signing would follow through after the test. Then as a back up, he contacts the other drivers who are at the top of his list of potential candidates for a seat at Sport Mikuren as he releases an official announcement.

Sport Mikuren expresses interest in signing Novikov/Baardsen, and Haukkana/Vorlen, and has contacted the respective parties for negotiation for a potential signing.

Sport Mikuren is open for tryouts.

After that significant development from his part, all that's left to do for now is to wait before he could finalise his decisions.

Iö, Auruna
Aurinen Residence

In the middle of a cold Iö night, Kälö couldn't get any sleep as his mind kept thinking about WSRC and how he didn't make much progress in the pre-season. He needed to do something before he misses the opportunity. He gently gets up from the bed so that he doesn't disturb the sleeping Zuiha next to him before making his way to his desk to do some late-night work.

The light from his computer monitor faintly illuminates his room as he types away on his keyboard while scrolling through whatever information he has about the current teams. He had to choose wisely, for a team where he would end up in and with there only being five at the moment, it's difficult to decide but he has to do whatever he could to get a chance to drive again. He takes a deep breath before pressing enter, sending an email to TGK-VK and Carlton expressing interest to drive for either of the two, while still considering Sport Mikuren, Sakite WSR, and Billingshurst if he would get turned down. If they aren't looking for me, I'll at least try to get them to notice me.

With that out of the way, he felt a slight relief while still being uncertain of what will happen. Finished with what he had to do, his eyes slowly close and his head drops onto the desk. Falling asleep, without any significant worries, for now.

by **Hodori Motorsports** » Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:03 pm

Sakite WSR RD Project signs An’ue Shuadakei as first driver.
Sakite WSR RD Project offers Sakke Pajari a seat as second driver.

I have a proposal for you.

bring drinks pls

The text message from Kuyara seven weeks ago that had started all this. Suzuchiru Souzare and Sakiteno Kuyara reviewed the data from their latest run with Seokuba Motorsport Park Rally Field personnel, comparing it with previous attempts at the various stages through the dirt trails. Their agent An’ue Toudeyaku was leaning against a wall tapping away on her tablet on the opposite side of the mud-covered car, an older model Taygeta Type-R owned by the Park.

The Suzuchiru Souzare that had started rally school seven weeks ago hadn’t been entirely enthused about going along with Kuyara with how she had presented it.

“So what exactly are you trying to drag me into?” Souzare asked as she stepped out onto the back patio of Kuyara’s house, the half-Nekonian prone on a towel taking in the mid-afternoon sun and a bespectacled woman – An’ue Toudeyaku – seated at the table in the shade of a beach umbrella, her attention fixed on the tablet in her hands.
“Did you bring the drinks?” Kuyara responded, not looking up.
“In the fridge. So what are you planning?”
Kuyara sat up, stretched, then re-affixed her bikini top before getting up and moving to the table. She took a seat next to Toudeyaku, gestured to the empty one next to her, and then at the pile of documents in front of her. “Do you remember that one incident?”
“Which one?” Suzuchiru sat in the indicated chair.
“The one where we almost died.”
Toudeyaku looked at the two.
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“2015.”
“More specific.”
“August.”
“Oh. Hard to forget that.” Suzuchiru tapped the heel of her left foot against the wooden deck.
The three sat in silence, only the waves crashing against the shore daring to make any sound.
“Right. Anyone else thirsty?” Kuyara suddenly pushed her chair back and stood up. The other two gave affirmative answers, Suzuchiru vocally and Toudeyaku with a raised hand.
With Kuyara indoors procuring refreshments, Suzuchiru looked at the documents on the table. At the top of the pile was a promotional pamphlet, showing a scarlet and gold Tarogama hatchback with a massive rear wing flying through the air trailing a plume of dust in some foreign forest. The rest of the pile, based on what she had looked at before Kuyara’s return, seemed to be application forms and series rules and regulations mixed in with more promotional material.
“Do you remember how fun it was, flying between trees at high speed, barely in control?”
Suzuchiru stared at Kuyara.
“I was thinking we should do that again, except deliberately.”
“no”
“And not on fire this time.”
“no”
“And no risk of getting shot at or being hunted down and best case killed by an enemy that doesn’t respect the laws of war.”
“…”
“So what do you say?”
Suzuchiru spent a moment to consider, then let out a sigh. “I suppose someone has to make sure you don’t wrap yourself around a tree.”

“I thought we were going to Kudakei.” Kuyara said to Toudeyaku as the three took their seats on the train.
“Kudakei Driving Park doesn’t have a rally course, Yemigama’s Proving Grounds are limited to manufacturers, and Samokae’s Rally Club doesn’t have cars for rental. Seokuba and Deyoze host rally schools at their respective facilities, and of those two options Seokuba is closer and has more frequent classes. Deyoze Driving Park is further away and their rally school schedule isn’t compatible with the timeline we’re working on.”

Seokuba Motorsport Park Rally Field, Beginner Course. An array of dirt paths on a grassy, hilly field. As described by Toudeyaku, “The worst that will happen is you tear up the grass and possibly roll the car or hit a ditch wrong and possibly roll the car. No jumps, no trees or rocks to crash into unless you really mess up.”
The first two weeks were spent in a classroom, learning rally driving theory, safety, and etiquette before the pair of Kuyara and Souzare or the dozen other students were allowed to so much as look at a car. Learning the Dos and Do Nots of rally driving, stage reconnaissance, making pace notes, and how to read and interpret them, and the importance of coming to a stop at stop control – Kuyara suspected the person responsible for the necessity of this lesson was in dire need of a thorough beating in a dark room – and road traffic safety in transit stages. The next week was spent learning the S11 Taygeta Type-R at road speeds on the Seokuba MS Park Karting Circuit and a simple figure-of-eight loop on the Rally Field Beginner Course, an instructor in the co-pilot’s seat. The week after was spent on the Beginner Course for dirt sessions and the Gymkhana Field for tarmac, with students paired with an instructor and taking a variety of short, simple stages alternating between driver or co-pilot.

After the first four weeks, the students that had wanted only to get a small taste of rallying departed, leaving about half a dozen remaining for the advanced lessons. Weeks five and six were more of the same, with students progressing to longer, more complex stages. From the seventh week onward, students were paired up and sent out on runs with the two swapping roles every leg, with instructors reviewing the telemetry and footage with each pair to critique their performance and identify where improvements could be made. Starting from next week students would be allowed access to the Intermediate Course, an extension of the Beginner Course that added jumps to the mix. A few weeks after that, the Expert Course for the serious students, introducing trees and rocks as obstacles on the generously wide dirt roads instead of the (well-beaten) bright orange rubber pylons.

“I know it’s still early, but have you given any thought to which team you want to drive for?” Toudeyaku asked Kuyara and Suzuchiru after the instructors finished their meeting with the two and moved to greet the next arrival.
The pair conversed amongst themselves for a moment, then turned to Toudeyaku. “Not yet.”

Week Eleven
“Left six opens into right five tightens into right three don’t cut sixty.”
Kuyara at the wheel of a mud-caked bright metallic blue Taygeta, Suzuchiru in the seat to her left barking instructions. A drone overhead capturing every movement of the car through the woods, cameras in the cockpit mounted on the rollcage and dashboard recording the actions of the two occupants.
“Keep middle over jump maybe, left seven long.”
Maybe a second of airtime, zero of the car’s four driven wheels able to deliver power. The suspension groaning in protest as it touched back down.
“Eighty, right hairpin don’t cut one hundred to finish.”
The turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine’s antilag popping and crackling off throttle as Kuyara shifted down through the sequential transmission. Turn in, get the car to rotate, back on throttle. A powerslide out of the tight turn, the front bumper centimeters from kissing a large rock at the apex. Up through the gears again. A short dash to the flying finish, the engine screaming. Back off the throttle, modulate the brake, shift down. Slow the car to stop safely at Stop Control.

“On paper the factory teams are all pretty interchangeable as far as how the cars behave. There is one team that expressed interest in you, Kuyara, but…” Back in the hotel room that evening, Toudeyaku looked up from her tablet at the two.
“I saw the offer. TGK. I’d like to not go to jail.”
“Why would driving for TGK send us to jail?” Suzuchiru asked.
“Echocoin.” The other two answered.
“And possibly bet.koi, but Hodoran gambling laws aren’t clear on betting sites.” Toudeyaku continued. “Still probably for the best you stay far away from them.”
“Okay but what is Echocoin?”
“Cryptoshit.” Kuyara pulled out her phone, tapping and swiping the screen to pull something up. “Pretend money to try and move actual money without any sort of means to know who or where the funds are actually coming from or going to. Illegal in Hodori thanks to Bytecoin exchange shenaniganery. Cyberterrorists, scammers, and fraudsters love it. Given its other use case, DHTI tends to get involved and take over from DFCI.” She showed it to Suzuchiru, on the screen a news story about DHTI – the Hodoran Ministry of Social Welfare’s Department of Human Trafficking Interdiction – seizing the physical servers of a website buying and selling for crypto very illegal images and videos from an apartment in Soeshu about a year ago and last week announcing the seizure and issuing of arrest warrants for suspects they’ve managed to deanonymise from transactions on the unredactable publicly available append-only database called the blockchain.
“Echocoin itself isn’t involved with the WSRC anymore, but a number of Ælund personnel from TRÆ’s stint with Echocoin are now with TGK-VK.” Toudeyaku tapped at her tablet, focused on the email she was drafting. “And that might be enough for DFCI to take action against you two.”
“If they’ve gotten themselves involved with other cryptoshit like FanToken then I can see that happening.” Kuyara fell spread eagle on her bed. “From what I’ve seen so far that isn’t the case, but just from the ex-Echocoin association TGK’s a no.”
“So, have you given any consideration to which teams to try for?”
“Dinner first. We can talk then.”

Through her agent, Sakiteno Kuyara contacts Carlton and Billingshurst Motors WRT expressing interest in a seat.

To: beto.koi TGK-VK WRT
From: An’ue Toudeyaku <toudeyaku.anue@team-tengu-racing.net >
CC: Sakiteno Kuyara <kuyara98403@infinet.co.hd >, Suzuchiru Souzare <szrsz098403@infinet.co.hd >
BCC: Marko Kivinen, Axel Novikov
Subject: Re: WSRC Seat Interest
I, An’ue Toudeyaku, am writing this on behalf of my clients, Sakiteno Kuyara and Suzuchiru Souzare.

It is our understanding that TGK-VK WRT is an effort involving Abovian and Koiawan personnel, and that of those Abovian members of the team’s management, a significant number of them were part of Tropicorp Racing Ælund during a period of time where they carried sponsorship from Echocoin, which was considered under Hodoran finance laws to be a criminal organisation.

In addition to concerns regarding past affiliation with Echocoin, we have concerns about the nature of bet.koi, the title sponsor of TGK-VK WRT, and potential conflicts it may present with Hodoran laws regarding gambling and sports betting.

Due to these concerns, I and my clients have agreed that it is in their best interests to reject your offer.

Regards,
山陰初音
An’ue Toudeyaku

by **Aboveland** » Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:13 am

Nurmikenttälampi Camping Ground
Iskajärvi, Aboveland

Brapp brr-brr-brr brapp brr-brr-brr brapp brr-brr-brr brapp brr-brr-brr...

Ka-clunk.

There's no static coming through Terho's intercom, the passenger seat in his Iskabil Kokko empty. It should be Marko Kivinen alongside him, forgoing the polo shirts for overalls and a notebook, but Mats Andersson from Vankkavalta Kyvytelsesbilettalli had had other ideas, and mustered up an offer the Abovian couldn't pass up. It's only a few days now until the season start, and Terho is, so far, co-driver-less.

But the rough, grunty, muffled idling of the Kokko's boxer engine in the otherwise tranquil forest of Nurmikenttälampi is comforting, and it launches him back years. He feels like an up-and-coming hotshot all over again; the voice of Edvin above the creaks of the suspension and patter of the rocks in their old Nordic Rally Championship car filling his headspace, a vivid, almost audible memory. He's not melancholy — rather, the feeling is energizing. The career switch to WGPC had been the correct decision, in hindsight — of fucking course — but his passion for rallying had never gone away. And in the time gone from WGPC, that feeling had come back to nibble at him. He missed the adrenaline, the competition, the grit, the nerve, the training, the waking-up-early in a foreign bed on race day, the buzz and vibrancy of the paddock from the comfort of his race seat.

Maybe — he pondered, staring off towards the tree-lined track ahead of him, at the end of which sat his mechanics' portable service tent — rallying holds what he still craves. He pulls back on the handbrake and slams the throttle to activate the launch control.

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppppppfffhhrrrrrrr.

Vankkavalta Kyvyteslesbilettalli Workshop
Vankkavalta, Aboveland

"I've got good news and bad news," Marko said, walking stoically into Mats' office. The elder Abovian, hunched over his laptop with his bifocals perched on the tip of his broad nose, looked up through the gap between his specs and his forehead. "Actually, two bad news." Mats sits up in his chair, pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, and perches his head on one of his fists. His other hands waves upwards and falls dryly. He hasn't quite caught on to Marko's personality yet, or whatever leadership style his old boss had had which kept him sharp — in any case, his work on the Albatross had already seemed to bear fruit in their private pre-season tests with Ren, even if the line between technical director and sporting director was still blurry.

"So, drivers," Marko continued, confirming his news was more related to the work he did in his old position at Ælund rather than his new engineering role at TGK. "Bad news: Kuyara and Souzare already declined the seat. They think we have some relation with Ælund still; the Hodorans have an oddly... persistent fear of Echocoin, it seems." Mats nods back, his eyebrows fluttering upwards as a sign of acknowledgement. "Bad news two: Novikov hasn't replied yet."

At this revelation, Mats frowns. He isn't surprised — Axel hadn't exactly walked away ecstatic from his Albatross test — but it's disheartening. Something in his gut stirs at the sudden uncertainty — it's a sinking feeling that's been stirring for a while now, ever since he'd decided to bring Marko into the team. Or maybe, since the deal with TGK?

Now pacing across the office, a prefab structure inside the larger warehouse, just as it used to be at Ælund, Marko sticks his hands out to present the silver lining. "The good news, though," he begins, and stops in his place to turn on his heels, "We have a lot of interest from other candidates. Imparato, the Valentian, for one; but also... Kälö Aurinen."

Suddenly, Mats sits up in his chair. His supporting hand falls towards his desk and clasps his free one, his thumbs twirling nervously before him. His eyes almost glisten, hooded by the thin shadows of his wispy white hair. Aurinen was something special in the championship, by far the most solid of the WSRC2 returnees. WSRC3 would be their third season; they have a wealth of experience and, if the winds of the service park were to be believed, a burning desire to break out of their home mold. In other words, hoping to leave Sport Mikuren.

"I don't think we have much more thinking to do, honestly, Mats," Marko continued, determinant, his gaze fixed on the elder, his hands fixed in his underarms. "Aurinen is the absolute best we have available; they're Aurun, so we can probably see eye to eye on a lot of things; and they've finished their last season with a win in Hodori." Marko's voice seems to deepen for a moment, his lower lip quivering. "I'll try to attain to my development role; but you have my recommendation."

Mats, thus far almost entirely silent, remains still for a moment. He scratches his chin and sniffles before nodding silently. "Yes," he says, looking up at Marko. A plethora of scenarios run through his head: development, testing, following the splits from the service park. Aurinen, he's discovering, fits right in in all the scenes, though he tries to fight the intrusive thoughts disturbing his daydream. Will the car be up to the challenge, though? Will Aurinen find their big break at this biting-off-more-than-they-can-chew outfit, or will — both — their ambitions fall short once again? Could this second chance be their last at breaking through in the WSRC at the behest of the Koaiwans?

Time, certainly, would tell on its own. Better not to dwell on hypotheticals, then. "Sending the offer now, Marko. Thanks for the help," acknowledges Mats, his warm, measured voice sheltering a burbling excitement.

TGK-VK offers Kälö Aurinen a seat.

Avsidesliggendevuoret, Aboveland

Tsk. "Idiots."

Axel chucked his phone aside towards a bunched-up towel beside him. The Hodorans were really pissed about that whole Echocoin thing, apparently — but what did he have to do with anything? He didn't know how this Toudeyaku guy had gotten a hold of his e-mail, or why they were even bothering him in the first place, but it had all but ruined his sauna for the day. The more the thought of it, and the more the rocks below his feet sizzled under the auto-sprayed water, the hotter his head felt — and it wasn't only thanks to the sauna.

He groaned and kicked his feet up, laying down opposite where he'd set his phone and stretching his legs out. Turning his head towards a narrow window, level with the bench on which he sat — the sinuous river running across Avsidesliggendevuoret visible in the near landscape from his mountain home — he sighed heavily, feeling as the sweat pooled in his collarbone dripped out and down along his neck. "Echocoin..." he whispered, shaking his head. Tsk. What a stupid mistake — even if the Hodorans weren't on his ass about it, it had still left him without a seat.

Although — as he thought of this, he conceded himself a counter-argument — he was not short of interest, at least. Sport Mikuren had been the first team to approach him — an intriguing proposition, no less after their success the previous season... which was no less still plagued with unnecessary frustration on more than one occasion for at least one of their drivers. He'd also heard from a so-called Billinghurst team, from a country called Copper Cuprum... which, frankly, seemed like a better shot than TGK-VK did, from his single interaction with the god-forsaken Vankkavalta village team, but came with the same 'working up from nothing' value proposition.

Clearly, he was in high enough demand to dig his nails into the negotiations a bit more. Whatever it was he wanted to negotiate, though, he wasn't certain; money wasn't an issue, and likely wouldn't be for the rest of his days. Neither was status in his prospective team: at worst, he'd be an equal-status driver with an implicit priority, what with being a literal former champion of the series. Maybe, then, all he needed to negotiate was time. The season start wasn't far off now, but he couldn't quite make up his mind yet.

He pauses in his self-reflection for a moment, clutches his hands to his chest, and turns himself over to lie down the opposite way, his head near the towel with his phone. He pats his slick hands dry, grabs his phone, and opens up his e-mail. There was just one value proposition left for him to check out — and since they didn't message him first, it better be good.

Axel Novikov expresses interest in negotiating a contract with Carlton.

Koivuslott, Abovleand

sakke: aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA
sakke: JARKKOOOOOOOOO

jarkko ♥: WHAT

sakke: DID U CHECK UR EMAIL AAAAAAAAAAA

jarkko ♥: AAAAAA NO WHAT

Sakke springs from his bed straight to his drawers, pulling his bedsheets up with him and across the floor as he stands. Sifting through the bunched-up holey underwear and old knitted gloves, he clutches a couple of socks — mismatched, of course — and drops to the floor while reaching out for a t-shirt above the drawer. He reaches over to his phone and presses the call icon on his chat with Jarkko. The call rings as he struggles to pull the socks up his feet and wades through the cotton to find the sleeves in his shirt. He jumps up with the phone in his hand when Jarkko picks up.

"JARKKO!" he yells, as soon as the other's face pops up on screen. "JARKKOOAAAAAAA."

Jarkko chuckles through the other end. "What is it?! Jesus Sakke, use your words!"

Sakke pants through the earpiece, the sound of ruffled fabric and assorted grunts punctuating his breathing. "I got — email! Sakite! Offer!" He can hear how Jarkko suddenly sits up, and the line goes completely silent.

"What?!" Jarkko screams from the other side. "You're fucking joking!"

Once Sakke's head pops up out the top of his shirt, he brings the microphone up to his lips to scream back. "It's true! Jarkko, this doesn't come just like that to anyone but, like, Axel Novikov. I'm going over now and we'll write back together." Jarkko can hear the thud of a pair of shoes on the floor, and the sound of Sakke dropping back down to slip them on.

"Wait wait," he says, trying to arrest Sakke's excitement. "Are you sure about this?" He paces quietly back and forth in his own room, a few blocks away from Sakke's house. "Didn't we get a testing offer with Sport Mikuren as well?"

Sakke almost pauses to think, but his stimulation jumps him as he springs back onto his feet and heads out of his room to fetch the house keys. "Yeah, but... there's little time left. And we got a solid offer already from the Hodorans — I think, you know... we got this chance already in the bag." He swings open his front door and walks towards his bike. "I don't know, I don't want to take too long now or to keep anyone waiting."

Jarkko stays quiet for a moment on the other side, before frowning. "Are you outside?"

"Yeah," Sakke replies. "I'm going over now so we can talk about it — but I think I have my mind set!" As he reaches his bike and puts a leg up over the seat, he hisses. "Ah, fuck!"

"What is it?" asks Jarkko. Sakke snorts. "I didn't put my pants on, shit. Okay, bye, we'll talk at yours."

Jarko grins warmly. "Okay, bye Sakke," he mutters, setting his phone aside as he drops himself onto his bed back-first. He sighs heavily and brings his hands to his face. If Sakke had made up his mind he knew it would be a hard task to convince him otherwise; forgoing Sport Mikuren for a team that was near-last last season? Seemed almost brainless.

But if he was so sure about it... Oh, how he hoped he was right on this one.

Sakke Pajari accepts Sakite WSR RD Project's seat offer.

by **Tumbra** » Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:47 am

Carlton offers a seat to Axel Novikov.
Carlton offers a seat to Alina Carbalo.

Carlton Headquarters
Thornton, Tumbra

Carlton's headquarters were located in the middle of the Golden Crescent for motorsports; almost half of the big Tumbran car makes, and almost all of their associated Tumbran Super Formula teams, were located here. But there had been rather more activity of a different kind near the Carlton headquarters; they'd fired up their rally-car line back into production. Carlton had never been much of open-wheel specialists; their founder, George Carlton, had always preferred stock car racing, but that had never gotten enough attention, or traction in Tumbra.

So he'd turned his attention to rallying instead. And while there hadn't been much of an official rally championship, there had been sporadic rallying events around the world in which he'd sponsored eager privateers to enter. And...he hadn't exactly attained much success in those. Carmakers from far-off countries, with more than enough organisation and experience, simply blew whatever privateers Carlton sent out of the water. Still, George enjoyed attending rallies; and cheered on his privateers.

And then George Carlton lost his daughter Margaret in a rallying incident; and that was that. Some said that incident haunted him for the rest of his life; whatever the truth was, Margaret Carlton had always been her father's favourite daughter, and the incident took George out of everything. The rallying programme was quietly mothballed; the tiny Carlton Cross, the affordable car for the masses of the 60s that had turned Tumbra into a dangerously car-centric society, had its sporting versions surreptitiously taken off the market, and it was George's other son Brendan who'd moved the Carlton name into open-wheelers, where they'd remained. George died in 1989, one year before the inaugural season of Super Formula; while officially he'd died of natural causes, the commonly-accepted alternative was that it was the drink that got him in the end.

And so Carlton had remained happily in open-wheelers, running an effort that never really seemed to make good on their potential.

Until now.

Nobody knew what really had changed between then and now, but the Carlton execs — free of any remaining Carltons, who'd fully divested from the brand citing "sustainaibility concerns", whatever those were — had become remarkably happy to start exploring other avenues for their cars to roam free. The Cross would still be their main vehicle of choice; but beefed up, of course, and essentially turned into a souped-up version, something George would have created from his own hand gleefully when he was still young. Now, of course, they just needed a few people to drive their cars.

Signing Paul Steinbrugge was surprisingly easy; the recently-retired TSF driver was long keen to move into other brands of racing. He'd somehow managed to rope Sophie McCreary, WGPC driver and three-time podium finisher into his effort; she'd be the one throwing cars around the countryside and snow and rural roads with giant potholes, while he'd be reading pace notes for her. It was an odd fit, and there were doubts over whether Sophie was okay enough to jump straight back into racing; but Paulie had given his personal guarantee that she'd enjoy it. It seemed that little stunt they pulled in the Northlands — where Carlton dropped a Cross in the middle of the moor, conveniently enough for Paulie and Sophie to discover, and for Sophie to be introduced to rallying — seemed to work. There was a fire in Sophie's eyes; Paulie had privately described it as "therapy through driving."

But that left the other two seats. The higher-ups were interested in Rawa driver Alina Carbalo, but there were doubts over whether she was experienced enough; compared to compatriot Julita Lerida, she was an unknown. But there was the question of the Esportivan market; the higher-ups prized the Esportivan connection very much. They decided to stay their hand; and soon, the interest came flooding in Fleftic driver Trevon Gallegos was apparently very interested, while Aurunan Kälö Aurinen had also written in. Hodoran Sakiteno Kuyara, a veteran of the open wheeler circuit, had also contacted the team.

But the name that made the Carlton bosses interested immediately was that of Axel Novikov. Abovelanders were racing gold; it didn't matter that Novikov had been the slower of the TGK-VK drivers last season. He'd won the first season of WSRC; and that was enough. After confirming that their interest was concrete, had entered preliminary contract talks with the side. Two seats were now tentatively filled; which left the last one.

This was essentially a wildcard seat; there wasn't much between any of the three drivers. Carbalo brought with her access to the Rawan market; Kuyara brought valuable experience with her, Aurinen had shown flashes of speed, while Gallegos...was fast, but known to have a bit of a temper. None of them stood out particularly against each other; but eventually business interests won out, and Alina Carbalo was offered the third seat after weeks of vacillation.

And the plan for if both didn't sign? Down the list — Kuyara was probably the choice for Novikov's seat, while Aurinen probably wouldn't take kindly to having been passed over; plus, there were rumours they'd also been in contention for a seat at TGK-VK. Which left Gallegos — a Hobson's choice for the higher-ups if there ever was one.

But the offers were sent; and work continued on the modern versions of the Carlton Cross, with a team eager to carry on the legacy of their founder.

by **Koaiwa** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 12:10 am

bet.koi ✓

@betkoi
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ren watanabe.

@renw9x
@DustyDrifterDylan yeah im still at tgk, still helping the development of albatross. so im gonna drive it for the next wsrc season with tgk-vk.

by **Recuecn** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 1:43 am

Abdoulaye Goita sat in his father's living room, watching TV on the old CRT monitor that his dad still refused to give up. Abdoulaye had never pressed him for a reason, but it wasn't hard to guess: the old-fashioned device clearly held many memories for Abdoulaye's father, reminding him of a time long ago, in a faraway desert...

Abdoulaye found that sitting in front of the ancient thing had become a meditative experience, one that dredged up old memories for him too. It didn't matter what was on the screen; the hum of the tubes was a meditative pranava and Abdoulaye would be transported into his past.

Right now, he pictured his dad watching his old WGPC races during season eighteen. After each race, he could expect a call from his father who would tell Abdoulaye ever detail he had seen during the race, as if Abdoulaye hadn't been there for all of it. That was just two seasons ago, but it felt like such a long time. With the inconsistencies of time in the multiverse, Abdoulaye hadn't been able to participate in either of the last two seasons, but he was itching to return to the sport. He thought of all the friends he had made and places he had been. He thought of all the people the WGPC had let him meet, from Olivia Stone, to Jeremiah Brooke, to Terho Talvela...

Terho Talvela!? Abdoulaye snapped out of his daydream as he heard the name. What could Terho be doing on TV? He had retired three years ago, the same time Abdoulaye had stopped driving. Abdoulaye tried to make out what was happening on the blurry screen. It seemed to be a short clip of a rally car driving through a forest. But sure enough, the banner onscreen read "Terho Talvela/(No Co-Driver)".

"...training for the upcoming Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland. Talvela has been busy in the racing world since his retirement, but is rarely seen behind the wheel himself. However, his previously-announced co-driver, Marko Kivinen, has taken a role as technical director for TGK-VK, meaning the three-time WGPC champ doesn't have a navigator."

The segment ended abruptly, leaving Abdoulaye with more questions than answers. Talvela, driving again? Surely he wasn't planning on coming out of retirement, given his role as sporting director for Tropicorp-Colourworks. Abdoulaye remembered the thrill of racing against him. Those were the days. Abdoulaye would love to see him drive again.

A crazy idea popped into Abdoulaye's head. He pulled out his phone and started digging through his contacts. As if. But surely they at least followed each other on twii.tur. Abdoulaye typed out a dm.

"Terho, I saw you driving on TV! It's been forever! Is it true that you need a co-driver for this weekend?"

Abdoulaye pressed send, and was filled with a rush of Adrenaline, like a teenager texting his crush. Surely he'd been too bold. But on the other hand, Terho didn't have a lot of time to find someone. Maybe the last-minute timing worked in his favor. Anyhow, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If Terho was back in the driver's seat, it was time for Abdoulaye to get back in a car too, and he couldn't think of a more exciting way to do it.

by **Quebec and Shingoryeo** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 1:04 pm

'Not bad,' said Alejandro Rusegara as he lit a cigar while lying on his bed. He was not surprised about receiving an offer - him and Sandro Moh, his friend and foe from junior rallying days, were very much the rally guys before even considering other forms of motorsports to start with - but he did not expect the source of the offer. The chiefdom of Copper Cuprum, after all, was not exactly on the common consciousness of Quebecois motorsports folk, who have usually been more familiarised to the local scenes of Atlantian Oceania afforded by the proximity of the Vilitan Cove to south and Saint Kanye to west, after all.

Ambitious team wanting ambitious lads, as expected, thought Rusegara. It had made perfect sense for Billinghurst to sign them. A young, aggressive pair with penchant for competitive rivalries, even within themselves as a pair, were a good fit for the Esportivan team that had great ambitions to outdo UrGa of Pridnestovia in the great game of motorsports rivalry between them, because of their interest in winning the title. Of course what he did not exactly know was that this was also to do with their ability to test the durability of the Billinghurst vehicles.

He immediately grabbed his phone, and called Sandro Moh, who was currently out fishing in his cottage just two hours west of Attawapiskat. Alejandro knew that Sandro, when not out racing or participating in routine engagements expected of him as a professional, preferred to stay as far away from the civilisation as possible. This would normally entail fishing in the cottage, where he would spend much of his time flying into and out of single prop plane, for weeks and weeks, and maybe move into his home city of Anju, Abitibi-Agawa, during colder, winter months. Even then, however, Alejandro knew that Sandro kept his phone and laptop on him in case he's required to be back, and this was going to be one of those occasions. 'Trr...tr...' Right at this moment, Alejandro was watching the outside from his Montevicio hotel room with the view of the Salamantic Sea as clear as it can get, as he waited for Sandro to respond. 'Come on...'

A minute later Sandro responded in hurry, the 21-year old seemingly surprised to get a call out of blue. 'What's up?' Sandro answered on the other side of the phone. 'Is there something urgent?'

'Let's go, to Esportiva baby,' was all that he said. It was time for them to head to Copper Cuprum.

Rusegara/Moh pair accepts the offer from Billinghurst.

by **Dod Rava** » Thu Sep 21, 2023 2:24 am

Carbalo/Palinski duo accepts the offer from Carlton.

(Sorry for this, but I couldn't come up with anything at the moment. I just wanted to confirm the signing.)

by **Auruna** » Thu Sep 21, 2023 7:17 am

Iö, Auruna

In a quiet day of scrolling through the internet on his laptop, Kälö eagerly waits for a certain message after sending the email to the teams that would at least consider him. Several minutes of nothing pass and with his mind focused on a random video that he's currently watching, he wasn't keeping track of his notifications. It was until he got up for another serving of coffee that when he came back, the most important notif popped up on the corner of his screen. Then he took a closer look.

"Zui! Can you fucking believe this?!"

The loud voice was heard throughout the entire house which was followed by intense steps as Kälö rushes over to the already waiting Zuiha at the living room. Kälö just couldn't hide his excitement as he nearly trips over when he tried to show his laptop screen to Zuiha. And once he managed to stabilise himself. "Nääüä!" ("Look!") He said in sheer childish joy while he let Zuiha read the contents of the message. After a quick read, Zuiha nods as she carefully understood it.

"You what what this means, right?"

Out loud, he immediately answered. "We finally got what we wanted!"

"Heh, yeah! That's right!" And before she went on to celebrate with him, she reminded Kälö to do something about it first. "Well, what are you waiting for? Reply to them!"

"Oh right!" Kälö says before clumsily sitting down and placing his laptop on the table. He composes himself first, easing up his excitement a bit. Then it was time to type out his response with this new direction that they are going. He kept it brief and straight to the point in order to get it out quick. After a few minutes of typing, he finally presses send and then he watches it process with a loading bar that teases him for quite a bit before it tells him that it was finally sent. Kälö could then finally relax after sending his response accepting TGK-VK's offer.

Kälö then turns to Zuiha with his childish grin to say. "Let's see how this goes."

Nisko, Auruna

Juri's office rarely gets messy but it was different this time as he was keeping track of all of the driver signings in this pre-season. With scattered documents and papers filled with notes, he was doing this just to make the right decision in the end. After the latest news and recent developments, he was seen anxiously pacing around the room, unsure of what to do next as his original confidence in his judgement faded along with his sleep. And as he was doing this, he kept talking to himself.

Pajare's going to Sakite. Novikov's likely to go to Carlton. And except for Haukanna, we lost our chances with our picks. If only we actually offered them a seat.

He then asked himself.

Who do we go for now.

Then a knock at the door brought him back to his senses and after hastily cleaning up his mess as well as himself, he went over to see who's at the door.

"Who is it?" He asked.

A female voice replied.

"Laura Haukanna, I came here to negotiate for a spot in your team."

Juri's ears perked up then he opened the door to greet her. "Welcome, you came at the perfect time for it."

While Juri wasn't expecting something like this to already happen but the girl took the time to travel all the way to Nisko just to negotiate for a seat. It wasn't long before the two reached an agreement and now officially, Laura Haukanna has signed a contract to drive for Sport Mikuren in WSRC3. It was unexpectedly easy and after Laura was sent on a quick tour around the factory, Juri turns his attention to the final spot on the team. He actually didn't know what to do with it, and to who it will go.

His final decision was unconventional but he just wanted to get it over with being so exhausted, and after choosing a pair at random, he goes up to his computer to basically give away the last spot on the team. Without much detail to go off of and being, he just hopes that this randomised choice would go well. With that, in an official statement, Sport Mikuren offers Imparato/Nogueira a seat for the upcoming WSRC season, taking many by surprise with the unexpected action.

"No other choice so let's see how this goes." He said, hopeful, as he called it a day and went back home for a much needed rest.