And they are off, the Barricada V-8 2000 in particular is going for a first stage without a roll.
It quickly becomes clear there are three big groups of cars. The fastest group involving the Wisconsin Motors, Eagle, Barricada, ACS, BAM, Bogliq, and the old 1939 Montes running close behind. While at the rear, the Epoch Race Spec is having a bad start (the other privately modified Epoch is fairing better), as are the Tannberg, LLA and Birmingham.
The old Noda truck cannot really follow the tempo, and the FM Cerberus is having issues with all of the tight turns.
S2
A second sector with a few incidents, now as the driver of the FM Cerberus is continuing to struggle keeping the car under control under heavy braking and tight turning. The Bowen bumps slightly into a concrete barrier near the slums, and the Juggernaut Hurja is fishtailing dangerously on throttle.
Meanwhile the Ardent clearly lacks power to be competitive on the climb towards the Squarelli slums, and the Barricada is having to let the leaders go.
The Birmingham is making up for its bad start, and the Epoch Race Spec has caught up with the privately owned one.
S3
A bit of a wiggle for the Barricada on the faster sections towards San Giulia, they are not making the most of their run in this sector.
That earlier bumps against the wall from the Bowen must have damaged something in the steering. Twice the car loses control on a high speed descent. The second time is the time too many, wrecking the car out of the race.
It’s with very high speed that the ASC 2000 blasts through this section, and this really divides the top three from the rest of the field now, with the Wisconsin Motors AeroMouse in second and Eagle leading narrowly still in front.
Behind the leaders, some fierce fighting between several pairs, Montes vs BAM, the two Epochs, Bogliq gaining on the wasteful Barricada, and The Juggernaut Hurja with the Bramble, to name the closest.
S4
A bit of a moment again for the FM Cerberus, as it spins out and hits the wall in front of a warehouse going backwards. Damage is minimal and it can continue. But this is not a good run.
Bad news for the Bramble Envoy as it gets lost between the warehouses of the Fostina, losing time to get back on the correct route.
Horrible crash from the Tannberg Apollon as the rear comes round and turns the front into a construction unit, flipping the car over. Drivers are shaken, and it takes a while before the car can limp on, desperate to at least finish.
The Ardent has put in a very good last sector sprint to make up a few place towards mid-pack, and the LLA has broken up the fight between the two Epochs, buffering them from each other. Meanwhile at the front, it’s extremely close, but not as close as the finish between the Bogliq and the Barricada.
Close start from the Caliban and the Hanson Halberd, who shoot off as leaders very early on. The racing a bit further is very close as well, with in particular the Bramble and the JHW passing the first checkpoint simultaneously (and dangerously two-wide on these narrow streets).
The Scagliati goes for an unfortunate spin just outside the industrial district; possible due to some oil on the road, and is the first to have to let go off the main lead pack. Those folliwng either are suffering, like the Barricada, which does not look to be very stable in the corners, or the Wisconsin Motors baja car, which appears to be a bit too powerful for a dash through narrow streets. The rear is all over the place.
The worst start is for the Boccaccino and the Puttzalong Inglese.
S2
Very unfortunate sector for the Caliban, which falls back immensely here, being passed by the Bramble, JHW, Pfeil-Vogtland, Giusseppe, Luxor, Falcon, and the Ardent.
The Civetta does not like the Squarelli slums, and not only because the car is too stately for the area. It simply cannot find grip on the horrible road surfaces there, and the car drops to a disappointing last place.
The JuggernautKulkuri is proving to be the king of the one tire fire out here and the Birmingham looks truly a handful to control as well. They are way back from where the action is by now.
The PuttzalongInglese meanwhile has overtaken the PuttzalongLeeroy on the climb towards Squarelli.
S3
The BricksleyChieftain is showing visible discomfort at being pushed hard in the high-speed corners. The Ardent as well looks decidedly unhappy about this non-going-in-a-straight-line shenanigans at speed, but at least it’s going fast.
A the front, still the Hanson, now joined by the Falcon. The Caliban is moving back up as well and is challenging the stately Luxor for third. The JHW meanwhile is falling back, and the Bramble had issues necessitating a small stop, dropping it back into the mid of the field.
The Boccaccino has had a few moments already, but its down towards San Giulia than things properly go wrong; first tagging a guard rails and damaging the front left, the Fruinian sports car drags to the left, right into a pillar of an overpass. The crash is tremendous, and the drivers are pulled out and sent to hospital.
S4
Another loss of control for the Scagliati, the driver Mazzanti having serious issues this stage keeping the large tourer in check. The guardrail of a bridge is hit this time, so additional time is lost checking up for damage.
Not the best sector for the Luxor, which needs to give up in the podium place battle, and settle for a top 10 place. The Ardent meanwhile makes a last mad dash towards the front.
This is one unlucky Corso for the Pfeil-Vogtland. The Graf and his driver are completing a good stage, when suddenly the rear snaps round, flinging the car into a low wall, heavily damaging the wheels on the right side.
Fantastic start from the Townsend, as it takes the lead, the Nugetti close on its tail. The main body of the class is lead by the Arkani and the Aeros, with the Eagle and Sovereign closing up.
The stragglers are the underpower Puttzalong, the slow to get up to speed giant-engined Hades, and the BAMRegana.
S2
A small wall tap from the ArkaniT40, but the car can continue without much time loss. The Townsend is struggling to get up the hill, and to manouvre the small streets of Squarelli.
Very close racing now between the WisconsinMotors and the Eagle for podium positions, the Arkani having to give up a bit.
Closing the ranks is the Puttzalong.
S3
Issues a plenty for the Townsend, but it’s moving up the order again a bit. The Hades is coming up to steam as well, and overtakes the BAM and Sovereign altogether, and breating in the neck of the Epoch.
S4
The Aeros is challenging the Eagle and WisconsinMotors for the podium positions behind the eventual winner of this stage.
The Hades and Townsend are pushing each other to a good second half of the stage performance.
Continued issues with the same problem for the whole Corso from the Arkani, as it outbrakes itself into one of the final corners. The drivers manages to stop the car with a spin, and it can continue after restarting the engine. Gone are those positions though.
Well played, all! (I’ll do my RP in a bit after the kids are down for the night)
I would have been 3rd in constructor points if all of my manufacturers were added together… and a top 10 overall points finish for the Shiso Hyu concept? Dang! I’ll take it.
I’ll do my bit of RP later on, when I can gather together all the strands of plotline and make sure I don’t leave any loose ends. After all, I wasn’t anticipating a class win, which means a bit of extra writing to do at my end. Ripples in the pond, and these two jokers didn’t just toss pebbles to do it, they chucked in a boulder, apparently. Won’t really do any timeline damage, but you bet Old Man Sinistra is going to be mighty upset at having to rescue these two and send them back home.
Just I know better than to write time-travel stuff when I’m tired. That’s how you end up writing paradoxes into your lore, and I really don’t want to do that.
It was in the third and last stage of the rally that the Vincents’ Halberd really shone, thanks to its raw speed and excellent handling on smooth roads. After a brief opening exchange with the equally formidable Caliban, they were eventually relieved to hear that it had lost a lot of time and positions in the second part of the stage. It would eventually claw back some ground, but not enough to threaten the Halberd again. Instead, a Falcon provided their main opposition for the rest of the stage. Realizing that they were not yet out of danger, the Vincents continued to push as hard as they could - and were rewarded with their only stage win of the whole rally, as far as their class was concerned.
The class win promoted them to fifth in class and 25th overall at the end of the rally. They had also placed 19th among all the cars which successfully completed every stage and earned 50 points for HMR. As the team packed up to prepare for the next event, Josh had this to remark:
“I thought our decision to campaign a big-engined car like ours would eventually backfire, especially after that rollover. But we recovered quickly and claimed our only class win in the third and last stage. We beat out a Caliban and a Falcon for class honors, not by a little, but by a lot. Is there any chance, then, that HMR will be back for another shot at glory?”
Vince’s reply was affirmative and encouraging. “Absolutely. But we could persuade the team management to enter cars in multiple classes, to show the opposition that we mean business. Regardless, we had lots of fun, and I expect this to be the case with every subsequent rally.”
Thus ended HMR’s first attempt (and a successful one at that) to complete a Fruinian road rally. And it would not be their last: word got out of the Vincent’s last-stage win and HMR decided to allocate some of their funding to a tilt at next year’s rally - but that’s for another story.
Well that was a lackluster final stage for the CS… But when the factory Familyman couldn’t do much there, it was only fair for the CS to follow suit. Still, it didn’t end in complete disaster, which is all alright by me!
The final bit of lore may only come tomorrow, as today marks a special occasion in my real life and I may be pressed for time because of it. For now a heartfelt congrats to each and all winners!
Thank you to everyone for competing and for your kind words. Competitions like this are a learning process for me as well. I try to make them better each time. Both for me behind the scenes, as well as for the contestants. I do always wish to keep at least some kind of randomness, as well as having the restriction fairly open. This to ensure surprises and to limit min-maxxing.
On that note, just flagging you can vote for the next event here:
(We have shown not to be “the last wheel of the cart” at the rally course in Fruinia and we arrived in the top ten of our category.
The president announces decorations for the pilots and technicians protagonists of the adventure in the West.).
before going back to the plane for Berlonia Est, the TMW team thanked all the opponents and the organization with a generous dose of Bratwurst.
The whole Team at TBA Motorsport was noticably satisfied by the result of the Corso. No one expected Hausmann and Schmied to take the overall time victory with the Gladius. Initial goal was to come into the top 3 within its class but being actually the quickest car of the whole corso was something no one expected.
What a great start for the just founded TBA Motorsport team and a good marketing for the car which is going to be launched in a street version very soon.
Not so much of a success was the fate of the Apollon. Unfortunately, a bad accident happened during the last stage. At least it made it to the finish line and completed the whole Corso. For a stock family car with only minor modifications, it still performed surprisingly well.
and a top 10 overall points finish for the Shiso Hyu concept? Dang! 
I’ll take it.
