A pyrrhic podium (or 8th place)?
After the short - and for him, somewhat awkward - podium ceremony for the Best Rallye GT, Rodin Gumprov, Mara’s chief engineer stepped down - with his small trophy in hand - from his spot on the rostrum to make room for the winners of the next category.
Awkward because he, of course, had stood alone in his place whereas everyone else was there joined by their co-drivers. Before the ceremony, all Rodin could mumble to the ceremony organisers was that his co-driver could not attend because of an emergency. Luckily, noone had asked about the kind of emergency - Rodin would have been unable to tell whether it was a family or a national emergency.
As he listened to the well-deserved praise of the three Best GT Design winners which were up next, Rodin wondered whether his ‘team’ had not been too successful, especially with the two stage wins at the beginning on top of the overall 3rd place after the final stage?
Yes, his goal for the event had been to be a worthy representative of Archana, and the project to prepare the car actually had been state sponsored to an extent. However, if the higher-ups in the Archanan government would have truly expected him to perform well, they would most certainly have sent a proper diplomat as his co-driver and not someone who had to disappear from every occasion where there was the danger of photographs being taken.
In any case, if Rodin had learned one thing over the past days - which seemed like months to him at times - that the other countries were far ahead of Archana in terms of car engineering and design. The trouble was - noone back home would believe him and just point to the stage results or even the overall results table. Rodin could well see the futile conversations playing out in his head, as he saw the podium crowd changing again from Best GT Design to Most Luxurious GT.
Something like surprise 3rd place on a single stage would have already gone a long way to prevent his entry from being a complete failure, but would have helped him making a case that they need to step-up their design and engineering game country-wide in order to remain competitive. Now, Rodin feared that there would be years of stagnation ahead of them, with those comrades being in charge of funding being able to point to the rally results to convince themselves that all was fine in the Archanan car industry.
Moreover, all that special effort seemed to be a bit wasted in retrospective since few of the improvements to the GTC Special over regular Irenas would actually make it into any mass production model anytime soon. And despite all the care that went to engineering the regular GTC, there was still a marked difference to the rally-prepared Special he had been driving. Yes, they gained some experience, but was that all in the end?
While the podium changed again in the background - now to the winners of Best Value GT - Rodin glanced to the side where all the cars were parked side-by-side. What would actually happen to the trusty Irena GTC Special upon his return?
While he would not be able to change the fate of the Archanan car industry on his own, there was one thing he could do in his company: set up a proper company museum and other efforts to conserve their heritage. And he also knew who to put in charge (as a side job, of course) - one of the Mayster twins who had proven themselves in the team that had worked on the GTC Special and who he regarded both as having great futures as engineers at Mara or anywhere else.
At last, Rodin applauded the winners of Best Value GT and with anticipation, waited for the announcement of the final ranking and the final ceremony to celebrate the overall and well-deserved winners across all categories. In the end, he concluded, given the circumstances, he would still treat his overall 8th place like a win or a podium finish.
OOC: I honestly had no idea that quality spam was so effective in meeting the goals of the stage part of the challenge. At least it made for some - hopefully entertaining - write-ups (even though the last one turned out a bit gloomier than anticipated). And yes, many thanks for organising, and looking forward to future rounds with the same spirit!