Meanwhile, six years or so earlier...
Mara junior development engineer Rodyn Gumprov stood together with his two superiors, Fedor Piechov and Henri Nordhov, in a parking area, together with all the other competitors and their cars of the 4th (and their first) Portunis Cannonball event. The three Companion prototypes - entered under their project name P47-1 - stood out due to their bright colours (well, at least two of them) that followed the Archanan flag.
His role in the black #99 car was too support the other two in achieving the best possible placement in their first outing on Letaran soil. He also looked at their military beige HD6 support van which in the year before had almost become the Letaran government van for 'special passenger transport. Ultimately, they had finished third in a very competitive bid. In a stroke of luck, Mara’s comrade directors had decided to make a very similar - but uninvited - pitch to the Archanan government shortly afterwards. Which appeared less squeamish than the Letarans to value price over comfort, and so most of the HD6 vans had finally vanished from their factory’s (as well as other) parking lots and started their life in service of the Archanan government.
At the starting line, Rodyn looked a final time over their competition - such as past winners Vizzuri - with much sleeker looks and, at least from the idle sounds, much more powerful engine architectures than their re-tuned undersquare flat-4. His colleague Yenna had worked wonders with the engine tune, but Rodyn still wondered how their three prototypes would hold up to the competition. This seemed to be less of a concern, however, to his superiors Fedor and Henri who seemed to thoroughly enjoy their holiday on Letaran soil and stood joking with some of the other drivers until they were signalled to enter their cars and get ready to start one-by-one.
As they started in the order of the starting numbers, Rodyn in the #99 car dutifully made his way to the end of the queue. He caught a glance from Yenna who stood near their HD6 support van and gave the ‘ok’ sign. Rodyn responded with a thumbs-up and focused on the three grueling days ahead of them. One by one, the cars ahead of him vanished in the distance more or less (in case of the diminutive Aeros) quickly.
As he finally got underway himself he confidently attacked each bend and let the engine stretch its legs on any straight - as he was probably the person with the most experience in this particular prototype from his participation and oversight of regular testing of the car over the past months to iron out all kinks before it was ready to put into production.
In fact, Rodyn had managed to catch up to Henri in the #42 car who had started about two minutes earlier after a short while already. As agreed, Rodyn held steady behind him in his support role, but Henri waved him through after a short while to catch up with Fedor Piechov in the #47 car who obviously had been more daring than Henri on the first kilometres. With his greater experience and confidence in the limits of the P47-1 prototype, Rodyn was quickly able to put some distance between him and Henri who seemed eager not to lose contact and learn more about the limits of the car from Rodyn.
**
On the morning of the third and final day of the Cannonball run, Rodyn sat alone in the breakfast room of the inn on the outskirts of Brospyne where some of the rally entourage had spent the night. On the previous day, he was joined only by Fedor for breakfast while Henri seemed to have enjoyed the Letaran music and spirits a bit too much for a timely rise, and Rodyn suspected that both were now absent for similar reasons.
Rodyn had managed to gain a couple of minutes over his to superiors on the first two days by deciding to ditch his support role towards the end of each day and going flat-out while Henri and Fedor seemed to have grown tired (or less ambitious at least) over the day. Rodyn had felt confident to do so since there did not seem to be any technical problem with any of their three cars. The extensive prototype testing and additional preparation seem to have paid dividends, or rather, been fruitful, to avoid a perhaps too capitalist expression.
As he left his empty breakfast plate behind, he heard Fedor calling his name. Rodyn waited until a seemingly well-rested Fedor had caught up to him. “Did you have a chance to look at the official timing? I was busy with other… things, yesterday.”
“Yes”, Rodyn responded. “We are actually up there with the Mons Paragons, two of the Vizzuris and one Minerva. So it’s probably down to a few minutes at best on the final stage today.”
“That’s much better than I expected, to be honest. Do you think you can finish up there with the leaders if you go all out?” Fedor wanted to know.
Rodyn nodded. “I can try, at least. All three prototypes seem to run like Hetvesian clockwork, so you probably would not need any support en route anyway.”
“Then go ahead and give it your best. Let’s put Mara on the map in Letara.” Fedor raised his voice ever so slightly.
Rodyn nodded eagerly, made his way to his car to drive the short way to the starting line, and mentally prepared himself for the new role with a much higher pressure. From behind, he heard Henri’s voice as he had obviously caught up to Fedor and they seemed to discuss whether they would be able to get at least a quick coffee before they had to be at the starting line.
**
On his way to Portunis, Rodyn certainly felt the last two days in his tired bones and muscles. While the P47-1 prototypes were quite light, the heavy all-iron 2.5 litre engine at the front made the steering effort substantially higher than it would be in the later production cars. And while the wide sports tyres made high-speed cornering possible, keeping up with the other contenders for the lead required full concentration.
He and the others in visual range seemed to alternate pushing and taking it a little bit easier, or nailing corners and going a bit wide in different rhythms, so that it was difficult to tell who was actually in the overall lead, especially given that the final positions would be decided on aggregate times. The cat-and-mouse games between the five of them provided Rodyn with sufficient adrenaline that he was able to forget the strain that the past two days had put on him, and he suspected that it was similar for the others. Moreover, he was the only newcomer while the others were already seasoned pilots, having taken part in the event in the last years as well.
During the day, it seemed that he finally seemed to have passed the Vizzuris for good - the slightly curvier road probably putting extra challenges on their drivers in a car that very much was built for the straight line. In contrast, the Mons seemed to be in his element in particular and he had a hard time staying on its tail. He wondered how his two colleagues would fare, especially given their lack of breakfast…
Finally, the finish line in Portunis was in sight, and if he had correctly kept track of where everyone was, Rodyn was actually leading the race, having finally put a short distance between himself and the pursuing Mons on the last kilometres before the town. The question was, was this enough to pull ahead of the Mons on aggregate times? In any case, he raised his arms in victory celebration as he had passed the finish line and carefully managed to bring the P47-1 to a stop despite overheated brakes. Even a stage victory was certainly much ground for celebration.
**
Rodyn had spent the next minutes making excited conversation with the other arrivals - his equally adrenaline-charged direct competitors of the third stage as well as Henri and Fedor who had eventually arrived a fair number of minutes later than him. After the last of the three Itals had crossed the finish line and the organisers announced that they were ready to reveal the winner. As with the previous stage, everyone was sure that the three Aeros would make their way to the finish line eventually, but they would not wait for their arrival with the celebrations.
Half in trance, Rodyn listened to the announcer revealing the final standings in reverse order and his arms shot jubilant into the sky as the Mons Paragons were announced to be in second place. The 9th and 4th placed Fedor and Henri were the first to congratulate Rodyn on his surprise achievement. Luckily, noone expected a victor speech from him and everyone was just happy to start the - by now legendary - event afterparty. Even the Aero drivers joined in a few hours later.
