The 2022 Trafikjournalen 24h clunker challenge (FINAL RESULTS)

TEAM TRAFIKJOURNALEN
4 PM-8 PM

At around 4.30 the Saarland rolled into the pits for a refuelling with an at least somewhat satisfied Filip Andersson behind the wheel.

"Hey, it seems like you have learned your lesson since last year", Carlén said.

"Yeah, no more car-pinball", Hansen continued.

"Nah. But I guess this is a bit more relaxed to drive than a torque-steery 80s turbo hatchback.", Andersson said. "And…a bit thirstier."

"60s cast iron pig is going to want its fuel", Hansen said.

"Oh well, it seems like the Callahan needs fuel too.", Andersson said.

"Sure, but it has done…a lot more laps", Carlén sighed.

"Oh well, at least I can see where I am driving, because no hood scoop", Andersson said, now the refuelling was done so he was speeding away again. He was passing the WRK that was struggling a bit on the track, only to see the Union bounce off the guardrail. Steering away from it quickly, he was a bit relieved that it only ended in a close call. Taking out the turn a bit meant that he even could pass the Bricksley. Life was good. Closing in on the korean fridge, he saw that it now had no rear window, deep inside he thought that revenge was a bit sweet, but on the other hand, there was no chance that the Saarland would beat it anyway, so it was kind of pointless to laugh at someone elses accident. Some laps later, it came out from the pits, and he had no chance closing in on it…

…oh yes he had because NOW IT WAS STANDING STILL, which he noticed a bit too late. Stomping on the brakes, the standard ABS on the Saarland meant that it could at least steer away from the disaster-to-be, but the last bit of braking had to be done by the guardrail. Oh, well. Not like anyone would be missing the red bumper anyway. It was getting a bit messy on the track now, but he managed not to involve the Saarland in any major mishaps. The biggest sigh of them all was probably when he was closing in on the Union. Reversing.

“I SO MUCH want to hear the story behind that”, Andersson thought.

"How am I doing?", he asked when it was time for a driver change.

"Not too bad", Carlén said. "You’re in 7th, but only one lap between you and the Cambridge prevents us from falling down to 8th."

"Well, it will happen anyway, because now Captain Slow will be driving", he said, when the Saarland was leaving the pits with Hansen behind the wheel.

"Maybe", Carlén said. "But it has a chance of holding up now, and then if needed, I can try to give all it has to give on the last laps."

TO BE CONTINUED

2 Likes

Team Slow
Part 4- How not to handle an automobile. The Definitive edition


As Matt drives on the track, thinking his name is “The Stig”, he spins out, and can’t help but notice the engine cutting out and sputtering, he checks the fuel gauge and indeed it was getting empty, he then radios Izzy “We’re empty”, she then prepares the fuel filler gun and goes to the side of the car’s fuel cap.

Matt then stops the car in time as he gets into the pits, Izzy starts refuelling the car, within it already looking like a low-budget Formula One, except without the rapid tire changes and all that fancy shit, The car gets filled enough for it to do another set of laps, and Matt drives out of the pits, tires spinning. For a second or two, in the meanwhile Izzy waits for her turn to drive the car.

Izzy then goes onto the radio for our team and she says “How are those tires doing?”, Matt then replies with “They still stick to the road, although they might become butter soon, who knows.”, he continues his driving uninterrupted for the most part, focusing on the track. Still maintaining the team’s third place, Better than last year’s run with the Hakumai mid-engine sports car that’s for sure.

Team If It's Not Punk It's Junk
Since Knugcab thinks this should be the team's name :P

Ox suits up and climbs into the old Wyvern for the next four hour stint. It soon come apparent that the drummer’s quiet demeanor isn’t reflected in his driving style. He starts wringing it through the corners with reckless abandon, hanging the tail out at any given opportunity. This goes on for about 15 minutes until his antics push the car too close to the edge. Ox gets a little too sideways, forcing the car to a near stop. This wouldn’t have been much of an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that the Schwarzburg of Team Schrott was going through the same corner. The two cars have a meeting to discuss the strength’s of their steel in a slightly messy fashion
“Oi! You utter pillock! Who gave you a license, mate? Why don’t you look were you’re going!” Ox yells over to the other driver. This is followed by a string of words that would be a little unsuitable for younger audiences before angerly revving the car back into the race.

The next hour or so goes a bit more smoothly for the Not Punk It’s Junk team. Ox’s driving simmers down a bit after the crash, though no less fast with him setting the team’s quickest lap. The Cambridge begins to sputter and cut out on left hand turns, forcing him to head to the pits. A quick diagnosis reveals that the issue is simply that the car is low on petrol. A quick topping up allows the car to head back out. Ox begins charging hard over the next half hour, trying to make up the lost time for the fill up. Looking to make a pass on Team Spy Kids, he misjudges the closing distance and slams into the rear of them. The screech of metal on metal echoes through the cabin as the Wyvern noses under the Rosewood
“Oh, bugger all!” Ox shouts at his own stupidity, slamming on the brakes two separate the two cars. With both Ox’s ego and the Cambridge’s nose shattered, he starts taken laps a bit more cautiously to avoid further incidents

Two and a half hours on, Ox begins to notice an odd sound coming from the rear “Oh bugger, what the heck is that racket now?” is all he gets to think before he’s interrupted by a loud BANG!
“Oh no. that can’t be good then!” The car feels weird and odd through the remainder of the lap as he limps it back into the pits
“Bad news chaps,” Ox says to the others as he climbs out “I think something may have let go.”
Alyssa tilts her head as she looks at the car “Err, is it just me, or does this thing look a little lopsided?”
Fern begins to pace from side to side, glancing at each side of the Cambridge “Bloody hell, you’re right! What would cause that?” she flops down onto the dirt, looking past the passenger side rear tyre “Oh, I guess that would explain it then. The bloody spring has sheared right in half!”

“Can we fix that?” inquires Alyssa
“Well, certainly,” replies Ox “Provided we can find a new one.” He grabs his phone to search for a replacement as the other two begin to jack up the car to remove the old one. Luck would be on their side, for a local scrapyard has a Wyvern on their lot. Repairs go reasonable smoothly, with only a few blue words and spanners thrown about, but the band loses around 45 minutes on the job. Ox hops back into it and roars out of the pits. He continues his vendetta against the Cambridge’s rear tyres, drifting about the track like a man possessed. Then something completely unexpected happened. Ox’s tail-out antics lead to another contact, this time with Team SCS in their FM. With a chorus of crunching metal and insults, Ox bravely brings the Cambridge back into the pits for the end of his stint

2 Likes

Team Oxracers, Ep. 13: Rolling out again

Previous post

With skidding tyres, the battered Kando comes to a halt slightly outside the Oxracer’s designated pit area, and an angry Corazon jumps out and takes a closer look at the smashed in rear end, joined by Jane.

“What’s the main problem, Corazon?”

“Stuff comes into the cabin. Dust, fumes etc.” He makes some wild gestures. “Everything else is fine.”

“Okay, let me think. Good thing I took that skill point in improvisation.” After a short deliberation, she waves to Michael and Mary to join her next to her Saarland Siegel full of tools and parts.

Meanwhile, Lucas emerges, slightly anxious for his first driving stint. “How was it out there?”, he wants to know from Corazon.

“Tough. Brutal.” Corazon is searching for words to describe the experience. “Like a knife fight at 200 mph!”

Michael must have overheard Corazon’s words from some distance away. “You are barely reaching a hundred, and that only for a short time if you nail that long left hander!”, he shouts back from the Saarland, irritated. Lucas suddenly looks much more relieved after the initial scare.

Corazon continues unfazed. “And there are always new opponents, they never stop appearing.” His expression suddenly brightens. “But if you know what you are doing, they are actually easy to deal with.”

“So like in a beat’em up arcade game?” Lucas wonders.

Before Corazon can reply, Jane and the others return with a large piece of transparent plastic, duct tape and some tools.

“What do you want to do with the… is that plastic wrap from some of your tools packaging?” Lucas wonders.

“Make you a new rear window”, Jane quips and directs Michael and Mary to the opposite sides of the Kando and how they should hold the piece of plastic, as she cuts off large strips of duct tape. “You already get in the car, this won’t take long”, she announces with confidence.

Lucas dutifully obeys while Corazon grabs something to eat and drink.

After a short while, Jane gives Mary the okay sign, and the latter sends Lucas onto the track with an encouraging slap on the Kando’s roof, the new plastic rear window flapping about ever so slightly but staying in place, and largely doing its job.

Lucas pilots the Kando out of the pits and tries to settle into a decent rhythm - which proves to be more difficult than in the practice runs due to the traffic of varying speeds on track - and also due to various mishaps and chain reactions that occur in front of him.

After a few laps, he almost hits the Bricksley as they have to brake hard due to the Union going unexpectedly slow. “Good thing I chose Luck as my special skill”, thinks Lucas. “That was a close roll, er, call.”

He continues on undaunted and seems to have a much clearer track in front of him for a while, as many cars dive into the pits for refuelling or short repairs. He slowly tries to get closer and closer to the limit in each corner… until he finally runs out of track, skill and luck and after a couple of uncoordinated yanks on the steering wheel ends up facing the wrong way - at least on the side of the track, out of harms way.

He taps the communication button on the Kando’s dash. “Sorry, folks. Looks like my beginner’s luck has run out.”

“Keep calm and drive on”, Mary says encouragingly. She considers printing that on a t-shirt for Lucas for next time.

3 Likes

Team Prognosis Negative

Chapter V - If you’re a punk, you drive a junk


Johan was looking at the Callahan in the rearview mirror (the only working mirror, quite lucky to have one).

“This is going to be an EPIC battle!!!” he thought.

As he maneuvered into the corner, he imagined himself triumphally holding on to the relentless assault of the boy racer behind. They’d fight tooth and nail, get in a few scrapes, but Johan would emerge victorious! A King!

As soon as he came out of his reverie, he realized that the Callahan was already way ahead of him, going too fast to catch up.


*on the radio*

Johan - “(long strings of expletives)!!!”

Anton - “You good!? You were right in front the pits and we did not see anything?”

Johan - “That stupid Callahan just passed me, I don’t even remember what happened.”

Anna - “Well I saw him slow down when he passed you, did he say anything??”

Johan - “(a bit less expletives), now he’s gonna pay the next time he comes by!!”


*10 minutes later*

The Callahan appeared in the rearview mirror. This time he was ready, it was Johan’s chance to shine and really defend his position…

And the Callahan accelerated and honked as it lapped him out of a corner, effortlessly...

Hello darkness my old friend…
The Callahan has now lapped the Régal 2 times.


*10 minutes later*

#66 right behind him. Johan had fire in his eyes, he’s gonna eat that POS for breakfast…

And Johan missed his downshift and the Callahan easily outmaneuvered him...

Hello darkness my old friend…
The Callahan has now lapped the Régal 3 times.


*30 minutes later*

Johan was furious as he saw the glimmer of the Callahan’s hood scoop.

“Not this time buddy!!” he shouted.

He did better this time and defended his position for a few corners, but ultimately...

Hello darkness my old friend…
The Callahan has now lapped the Régal 6 times.


*25 minutes later*

Johan was so concentrated on replaying the last few laps where the Callahan lapped him again, that he underestimated the breaking distance in front of him and …

 * THUNK *
 * CRASH *
 * SHATTER *

“Fuck!” he shouted. He rearended the leader, the ugly little hatchback from team Oxracers. Glass shards flew in all direction. That was a nasty hit. How can this thing fly across the track so fast, is it those humongous tires it is sporting? For sure this was unintended… but Johan was so full of rage depression and self loathing that he quickly cheered up!

“I thought you were faster than that!!” he shouted at the Seongu in front. @AndiD

As if the driver in front heard him, he slowed down until they were side-by-side. The dark-haired driver was in full professional racing suit - it looked brand new out of an Halloween supply store. As the window rolled down, all Johan could hear was the other guy shouting:

YOU ARE (unintelligible) PRINCE OF RACING! (unintelligible) YOU CAN STOP (unintelligible) GOD!

“DAMN RIGHT I AM THE PRINCE OF RACING, DIPSHIT!” Johan shouted back, not realizing he went from King to Prince in about an hour. By the time this is over, he might be down to being a Jester.

As he got invigorated by this exchange and well needed action, he was feeling invincible… Until the Seongu expertly outmaneuvered him in the next corner.

You can guess what happened next...

image

(At least it was not the Callahan…)


on the radio

Anton - “Are you good, we heard some action in there and saw the Seongu coming back in the pit, you seem to have made quite an, erhm, impression?!”

Johan - “All good, a few scrapes in front, but this car is a tank! If you see the driver, tell him the Prince stops for no one, he should get out of the way next time!!!”

Anna - “Focus on driving Johan!! You are making progress, you are 5th since the FM stopped for refueling!!”

Johan - “But that Callahan…”

Anton - “Forget about it buddy, he’s way too fast for you, we’re no match…”

Johan - “Why? We this puppy we should be leading the pack!! This is a legendary car made for a prince!”

Anton looked at Anna, wondering if they should tell him. Nah, his time’s nearly up, he’s probably gonna come soon for a refuel and a switch, but Anton wondered how dangerous he could be in the pits with him and Anna away on the track.

Anton shuddered.

What could happen until then anyway…

35 minutes later, after the Callahan lapped Johan 4 more times

Forgetting momentarily his “epic failure battle” against the Callahan, he was in an actual real battle with the Sandhurst … until he missed a corner and Johan goes wide, slowing down traffic behind him. The Sandhurst did not wait for Johan to regain control and clipped him as the Régal went merry-go-round on the track.

As the Régal was spinning slowly, more cars crashed and bumped each others behind as they tried to hastily get through.

Johan was not amused...

image

… but he finally regain control and passed most of the cars involved as they went in for repairs. The Régal was still standing.

With everything that happened, he really did not see the Callahan coming in hot and doing what it does best…

Lapping the Régal...

Hello darkness my old friend…
The Callahan has now lapped the Régal 11 times.


40 minutes later, on the radio

Johan - “I’m gonna come in, bit tired and the needle is getting pretty low.”

Anna - “Ok I am ready to take over! We’re 4th right now but I will probably come out in 5th or 6th…”

As she finished her sentence, the Callahan snuck by…

... and lapped Johan again.

Hello darkness my old friend…
The Callahan has now lapped the Régal Johan a total of 15 times. About time we end this misery for him

The Régal slowly crept in the pits. Surprisingly in good shape.

As Anna got in and Johan cooled off by uttering profanity, Anton looked at the board. They’ll probably come out 5th after this… but, how is this even possible? Johan is not a professional driver and the car is supposed to be an old 4x4 wagon, nothing spectacular. Sturdy, sure, but fast??

He came back to reality as Anna accelerated out of the pits. One. Two, Three, Four. Five. Six. Seven? How fast did the car get to 100 km/h?!

Anna - “Oh. My. God. This thing accelerates like a beat, I did 0-100 in about 7 seconds!!!”

How is this possible, thought Anton? He glanced at Josef, also sporting a surprised face.

Josef - “Should be closer to 10 seconds, not 7. Something fishy.”

Johan missed this important piece of the puzzle, still oblivious about the true nature of the car… or was he really?

More importantly, they all missed another important clue. We’ll find out later.

stay tuned for more

4 Likes

Team Shift Happens; the human side of things

OOC: once again, not race-cricital, hence hidden, read if you want, but nobody can force you :smiley:

The actual text

With the first four hours having passed, Valentin’s phone emitted a faint, but still noticeable “pling”, upon which he pulled out said phone.
It displayed a calendar reminder, containing info on what he was to do regarding physical recovery.

“Excuse me for about an hour or so. I’ll head out back and do some therapy stuff…”, Valentin announced to the others, before getting out of his chair and leaving the garage out the back door.
This left Norse to be the only human in the entire Shift Happens pit area. Having nothing better to do, he went about the place trying to learn something about his teammates.
A few laps around the garage later, he eventually stops somewhere near the twins of Kaylie and Kayden, mentally fumbling with words before mustering up some courage to speak to them:

“So… the car’s doing good?”, he asked meagerly trying to get something in the way of small-talk off the ground. After all, a group of bipedal animals was a new experience even for the open-minded Norse.

When Norse approached with a question about whether the car was doing good, Kaylie smiled and turned to face him. “Yeah, looks like it’s holding up well. Rukari is our most aggressive driver, but it seems like he’s not yet ready to trash the car,” Kaylie said.

“For now. I saw him threaten to spin out the Rogue Traders’ pickup. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decides to use the nudge bar for a bit of “fun” out there,” Kayden added.

“How are you doing?” Kaylie asked. “I know it can be a bit boring in the pits if the car’s doing well out there.” For a brief moment, she checked to make sure her plain titanium ring was still on her left ring finger, still a little new to it and not wanting to risk losing it already, then looked back out at the track as she heard a crash, noticing two competing teams had crashed into each other. “Well, that was predictable. Those “If it’s not Punk, it’s Junk” guys seem to drive like junk,” Kaylie said.

“Not sure why i agreed to this, to be honest. There’s nine of us here. I don’t think nine people are necessary to watch a car go round a blown-up go-kart track.”, Norse replied as he watched the remaining teams do lap after lap, occasionally bumping into each other or spinning out.

“Plus, i wouldn’t call myself a ‘petrolhead’ or anything… Like i don’t even have a license…”, he added while sheepishly scratching his head.

Kaylie chuckled. “Yeah, there’s a lot of us, and we’re capable of fixing most issues on the car without too much trouble,” Kaylie admitted. “Still, it’s better than lounging around in Nevada with nothing to do but fix customers’ cars and count cacti all day.”

When Norse mentioned he didn’t have a license, Kaylie added, “There’s no shame in not having a license. You live in an area that supports cycling a hell of a lot better than where we’re living. And if it wasn’t for the fact that we need them for our jobs, well… I know I wouldn’t have bothered getting my license, and I know for a fact Jayde only got his because I insisted he do so. Otherwise, he’d have kept on cruising around on his city bike, or his new custom-frame road bike, and never bothered getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.”

Kayden chuckled. “He got a bit of a crash course in driving earlier in the year, and Valentin managed to teach him to drive stick.”

“Yeah, and you should have taken him up on lessons,” Kaylie quipped to her brother. “After all, “Customer states the engine revs, but the car goes nowhere.” I pull the transmission off and it looks like a bomb went off while attached to the flywheel.”

Kayden grimaced. “Yeah, that was my bad.”

“That was also your second clutch,” Kaylie added.

“Possibly… Never been to the States.”, Norse remarked as they mentioned that it was better than being in Nevada.
“And i’d like to get a license simply because of career opportunities, but holy hell they are expensive here…”, he added.

As the two twins kept going about ‘customer states’ and ‘clutches’ and ‘how to drive stick’, Norse looked completely lost, never having sat in the driver seat of a car, let alone actually driven one.

Kaylie looked over and realized Norse seemed lost. “Let me guess: Never actually driven before?”

When Norse shook his head, Kaylie smiled.

“It’s not a problem. We got here a while ago and had to learn the hard way. Our first experience was a cross-country trip in an old Sinistra Traville, and we didn’t even understand how the climate controls worked,” Kaylie said. “We had to learn everything. How to maintain a car, how to fix it when things break. Ended up opening a garage to fix cars for other people once we had it figured out.”

“How could i? It’s hard to go to a driving course rink-thing where unlicensed people can at least try their hand at it when your monthly disposable income fits into two digits… That’s the reason i cycle to begin with. It’s simply cheaper than any other transit method, barring walking…”, he replied, turning imaginary pockets inside out to exemplify the point that he’s broke.

“Anyway…”, he said, pulling out is run-down phone to look through the incoming call logs. “So you were the one… ones? Having called me half a year ago about Val?”

Kaylie chuckled. “We had… A friend of ours place the call, but yes, we were there. We’re the reason you asked if you were on speaker-phone,” Kaylie admitted.

“So about that ‘event’ Val was apparently part of. Mind telling me about it? Val kept his cards close to his chest and seemed rather… disappointed in how it went.”, Norse inquired.

“Oh, not a problem. We had been rolling this idea around for a while to do a long-distance cross-country event of our own. We called it, fittingly enough, “Shitbox Rally.” Show up with a $2000 car or one worth an equivalent amount in the local currency of your area, bring a team and supplies to survive the wilderness. Unlike a lot of similar cross-country events, we went with the idea of stages, where everyone regroups each night and camps together,” Kaylie admitted.

“Let’s just say it’s fucking boring on long trips when you’re out of radio range of anyone else for days,” Kayden added. “This limited that problem to just part of a day at a time.”

“Well, things were… Chaotic. One, we had a way bigger turnout than we expected. I thought we’d get maybe four or five teams,” Kaylie said, “and we ended up with 17, ourselves included.” She paused to think for a moment, then said, “We had a night stage that wasn’t pleasant, caused by someone stirring up a bit of the local wildlife and, well… That didn’t help any of it.”

“Then Val had a catastrophic failure and had to fix the car,” Kayden said, being deliberately vague so as to not drag Val’s fame into the forefront of the conversation, “and ran the rest of the race with a backyard fix.”

Kaylie smiled, then continued with, “We had a couple of interesting teams out there. A bunch of people who, quite honestly, spent a lot of their camp time keeping their drunken lady under control. She painted their van the most wild shade of pink I’ve ever seen. I swear, it was so violently pink that Takaraya over there would be able to see it. She also drank a lot of alcohol. Including some of Rukari’s rather potent moonshine. There were a few cool cars in the group. One really nice rally-inspired Dauer that looked awesome, but kinda sucked on most of the stages. A Union Magistrate wagon that looked like hell by the end. Couple boring SUVs.”

“Of course, there were also problems. One team got sent home early for driving a stage drunk. Another team had a fatal crash. Thankfully, they were the only two really-bad events, other than the wildlife problem,” Kayden admitted.

“Oh, and Valentin towed our truck for a few stages with a Dione. We blew up the engine,” Kaylie added.

“Doesn’t sound too bad… though i have no say here, not being able to go vacationing and all… Best i managed was three days off to do the Vätternrundan event.”, he said, letting out a mild sigh as he had been stuck in a never-ending loop between work, cycling and home duties. While this was a somewhat sustainable balance of work, sleep and leisure, he did have a desire for some more adventurous stuff away from work.

“We thought the event was a good bit of fun, but… It was tough as hell. On one hand, waking up each day to something new was exciting. On the other hand, tropical hell was tropical hell, and breakdowns just made that worse,” Kaylie said.

“That, and the jet-lag was real bad. Everyone was tired. Well, except Malavera, but that’s just because he sleeps every-other-day,” Kayden added.

“Is it like in Asia or something?” Norse inquired. “Val told me that, too. The jet-lag, that is…”

Norse then pondered a bit about the nature of the event at large, his mind going from japan scenic landscape drive, over to what amounts to the Top Gear vietnam special but with cars, eventually ending in a Chinese version of the cannonball run.

“Something like that,” Kaylie said with a smile. “The landscape was beautiful at times, but driving it was definitely wild. Hell, in one stage, several of us were matching pace with the local trains on dirt and gravel and cobblestone roads barely suitable for animal-drawn carts.”

“Days felt really long on the trip,” Kayden added. “I think part of it was just the fatigue from all of the driving and some less-than-stellar nights. Hell, I don’t know how Kivenaal managed to keep going through it. He has… Some issues with PTSD. I think being in the forests there made it hard for him to sleep.”

“Was asking because even Google Maps doesn’t seem to know where the biggest city is. Val told me something about it being called ‘Trugarde’, but looks like it’s some local name not used elsewhere…
Do you often do such trips?”, Norse replied, digging deeper and seeming highly interested in that place. Wherever that may be.

Kaylie startled ever-so-slightly as Norse mentioned Val had told him about Trugarde, though almost immediately regained her composure. “Yeah, that’s a local city name in their language. Center of their railroad network. Had a big party there, but it was one hell of a bust. I don’t think anyone there actually enjoyed it,” Kaylie said.

“We did the one trip as a trial run, things worked out well enough, so we’re planning another one next year. Kivenaal and Rukari were scouting locations, but getting answers out of them can be very, very difficult. They want to preserve the mystery of the new location. About the most we’ve gotten so far is that it’ll be cold at the start, and end in the warmth,” Kayden added. “We’re hoping for a yearly event.”

Jayde looked over and joined the three of them. “How are things going over here?” he asked. “Heard the mention of Trugarde, and, well,” Jayde smiled, before speaking a phrase in Gand that pretty much no one in earshot would understand, and following it with, “I spent a while there. Wasn’t born there, but spent a good part of my life there.”

“Jayde joined us for the journey, decided to come home with us,” Kaylie admitted. She grabbed his left hand with hers and smiled, then added, “We got married recently.”

As Kayden explained that they are kind of planning on another run next year, Norse’s eyes lit up in optimism and excitement. He didn’t say a word, only staring back at them like a little kid that really wants to go on the big rollercoaster, eventually breaking his silence and going back to ‘normal’ once the marriage was mentioned.

“Congratulations you two!”, he said, his eyes going back and forth between Kaylie and Jayde. “Imma head back in. Not used to a grid of cars, most of which fart-canned…”

He then politely nodded before turning around and heading back in.

“Yeah, most of these cars are obnoxious,” Jayde replied. “Including ours.”


5:30 PM

As Valentin returned from his therapy, Takaraya motioned to him to come closer. “I could use a bit of help here with the sandwiches, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Uhm… sure.”, he replies, taking a moment to loosen up some joints before heading over to Takaraya.

Takaraya smiled, grabbing the heavy pack containing their food supplies, setting it onto a nearby table and opening it up. He pulled out bread, butter, tomatoes, lettuce, bacon to be cooked, and steak to cook as well, followed by a couple of knives, a stainless-steel cutting board and a cast iron pan. He then set up the gas burner on top of the table, perching the pan on top.

“You and your friend Njordal, both of you are fine with these items?” Takaraya inquired. When Valentin nodded, Takaraya smiled. “I’ll handle the cooking if you stack up the sandwiches. Don’t worry about them looking great, it’s just food.”

Takaraya turned on the gas to the burner, turned the knob up, then sighed, grabbed one of the butter knives, and struck the knife across the back of his left hand, throwing sparks at the burner, which caused it to erupt with the usual blue flames. “Sorry, I don’t carry matches. Or lighters. Tobacco smoke makes me feel ill,” Takaraya mentioned, setting down the knife and settling his cast iron pan over the fire.

While the pan was warming up, he grabbed a sharp knife and started cutting thin slices of tomato and making a nice pile of them for Valentin, who was slowly, but steadily buttering bread. After cutting the tomatoes, he moved quickly to rinse off his knife, then used it to cut up the lettuce as well. By that point in time, Takaraya noticed that Valentin was struggling a bit to keep up with the butter. “Sorry, Valentin. I do this a lot back home for the crew. I’ve gotten fast at some of it,” Takaraya admitted.

When Valentin gave a light shrug, Takaraya chuckled. “You’d be surprised how helpful an extra set of hands can be, especially ones that aren’t covered in fur,” he said. He opened the packages of steak, placing several into the hot pan.

“Do you have any objections to medium-rare steak?” Takaraya asked.

Takaraya’s question had Valentin puzzled. He simply quips back a confused “Pardon?” as he tries to figure out what is meant by “medium-rare”.

Takaraya flipped the steaks over, then asked, “Do you know how done you prefer your steaks to be? If you don’t, that’s okay. If you’ve got a preferred temperature, I have a thermometer I can check with. Have to do that regardless.”

“You can cook them at various temperatures beyond ‘hot’?”, Valentin answered, looking even more confused as he looked at the steaks in the pan fizzling away.

Takaraya gave a light nod. “There are some who prefer a steak closer to rare, where there’s potentially a little more blood on their plate. And some who prefer their steak “well done” where it’s cooked quite thoroughly. Well done is typically the safe bet, but some claim it ruins the flavor.”

Takaraya’s explanation did little in clearing up Valentin’s confusion.
“Uhm… Does a steak even go onto a sandwich?”, he said, trying to avoid having steak altogether.

“It can, but it doesn’t have to. I don’t mind working around that. About the only thing I’d have to know is how you prefer your bacon, and that’s a simple question: Crispy, or not crispy?” Takaraya said. He grabbed the thermometer, checked the three steaks there in the pan, and pulled each of them out, setting them on three of Valentin’s buttered slices of bread.

“About as crispy as you can get without setting it alight,” Valentin answered, relieved about at least being able to provide some useful information.

Takaraya chuckled. “I see we have a similar preference, then.” As Valentin chuckled as well, Takaraya smiled.

It didn’t take long before the steaks were all done, and with most of the sandwiches filled up with steak, leaving two sandwiches without one, Valentin started putting tomatoes and lettuce onto each of the sandwiches while Takaraya started the bacon. As the bacon was cooked to the extra-crispy texture they both wanted, he started scooping it out of the pan, giving Val’s and Norse’s sandwiches a double-helping of bacon in replacement for the steak. Once he was finished cooking, Takaraya turned the burner off, loading the rest of the sandwiches with a smaller amount of bacon and watching as Val put the top slice of bread on each of them. He set the hot pan on top of the toolbox to keep it from being easily bumped by accident, then called out across the pit lane, “Dinner is ready!”

It didn’t take long for the crew to set their tools down and wander over, each grabbing sandwiches and taking hungry bites. Kivenaal made a bit of a spectacle of himself, grabbing the still-hot pan off of the toolbox and putting it on the burner, making a personal batch of fries with a sandwich in one hand, a water bottle in another, and grabbing a plastic drink cup with a third hand to put his fries into it. He reached into a pocket and grabbed a box of matches, setting the cup down long enough to strike a match and relight the burner.

Takaraya finished his sandwich, washed it down with a fair amount of water, then tucked a tea bag into his mouth and chewed it lightly, enjoying the flavor.

4 Likes

Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Race: Preparation for third life and i shitted in my food

Preparation for third life

Klimentol had thought long and hard, then decided.
“We are taking car off platform, going to work on it fair bit. Gonna make a call…Mat, whats phone number of your father and does he have cargo van at his disposal?”
“Why you want to know these?”
“Bcos i have plan, you are about last person to be affected by it.”
“Fine. I dont know about van but i do know phone of father.”
(Information was passed and phone was used)
“Hello, here is Klimentol, one of teammates of your son on 24h Clunkers. I want to ask few favours of you. We need some stuff delivered here, which requires van…”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…i knew this house was haunted. And to think we could have gotten better…im woman with dignity, even tho without clothes.”
“You…listen to music while showering? From phone? Music had stopped the moment i started speaking?”
Mat: Dude wtf
Klimentol continued regardless
“I called you through phone, there are no ghosts. This is phone call, i cant see you. Also, Mat gave this number.”
“OH im sorry for too much info and reaction. You would get correct person if not for fact he decided to leave work phone at home. And he has nice Spotify playlist i wanted to check out, soooo…”
“Understood. Have a nice day.”
(To Mat)“I never thought i would talk to naked female via phone…not exactly proud of fact this one happened to be your mom”
Mat: “Again wtf.” but he kept cool enough for Klimentol to explain, which decreased tensions.


Phone ringed about 10 minutes later. This time, other side was correct parent.
Klimentol answered
“I see your wife called. Im once again sorry for disturbing her…”
“No need, had a good laugh out of her explanation. Now, you needed me for something, what that may be?”
-It may be the fact that our brake disc had cracked so we would need new one.
Mat and dad simultaneously: Thats not how it works in that race…
-Let me finish. We have plans for car…uhm, beyond racing. It technically survived this race as in most of important stuff works fine or seems to do so.
As such, we will do extensive checkup on it and would require fair bit of stuff hauled to here. If you can grab some sort of cargo van, good. If said van gets filled with interior parts for 1977 Saguaro T-REE, even better.
-Does that mean…
-Yes, we are returning it back to streets. After all, i must admit we dont actually have some car we can truly call ours. Might start up such experience with this.
-Understood. I will need some time to see if we can find something and will get back to you in few hours.
-We will check car itself to see if it needs something else as well.
-Ok. We will keep in touch.

Call has ended and Klimentol was satisfied.
Now car would be subject to more detailed inspection

This nice list (thanks Knug and pls continue to do this in future Clunkers) shows issues Saguaro had upon arriving on track to some extent.
Red dots show ones that were discovered during preparation or via usage of car before racing
Enough driving was done to notice bad handling due to tires and less than ideal steering. Aydar lifted car fair few times, which highlighted fact of rust on underside

Pink dot was…well, just read rest of this paragraph…
Either way, during this new inspection oxidized contacts came into greater light, but this needed just basic cleaning of said contacts with small amounts of brake cleaner, which was brought via unknown means.
Due to fuel pump issue done during race, hood was opened and there was lot of poking around to see what was problem. So there was enough to suspect said contacts

Dots marked with blue express some issue that had kinda appeared during usage, but cant be pinpointed to any specific part.
Ofc author of this post and Knug were aware of fuel injection being troubling from very beggining and now this knowledge is passed onto you, reader.
But noone in team would be aware and so, even for slightest of time, fuel injection isnt only culprit for some hiccups experienced during previous usage.

As for stuff without any dots…here is why its unknown in its entirety
Cooling clogging will prob await better times to be revealed, since experiences with car were obtained in Sweden, which isnt known for particularly high ambient temperatures.
Bad behaving brakes may as well be due to bad/old tires
Both of issues remain undiscovered also due to lack of actual hard usage by team: driving on streets would hardly reveal brake fade or cooling troubles, especially if pace is decreased to account for old tires still on car.
As for race itself…well, there were lot of pit visits due to reasons outlined by hosts which could allow fair bit of cooling down of both affected systems.


-I have returned. My wife says hi as well, for ones that are concerned.
Person on other side of phone chuckled
-Im happy to report that apart from already established stuff, we need nothing more. Also consider that hi received; i gladly return the favour.
-Nice. Back to business in hand: brake disc was easy to find and everything that could be found of interior would be driven to you.
I expect my son to be at best of his behaviour when i arrive there.
-Ok, we are looking forward to you, our friend…although i imagine Mat would prefer to call you dad.
-That…wildly depends on situation. But either way, we will talk next time in person.
-What are your predictions on time
-About 6 hours: you know yourself trip is lengthy and there are some roadworks along the way…(When i was typing part where team arrived on track i looked into potential routes through Google Maps and there were indeed roadworks)
But just few details and we are ready to go.
-Ok see you soon

Call ended

I shitted in my food

Now we are turning attention to big guy who spent good amount of time sleeping.
He had repositioned himself fair few times which was sometimes visible and audible through metal plates of platform moving and screeching, although likely noone took much of attention to that.

Gromadon had many nice dreams during this time and well, every good boy needs to eat after nice dream, right?
So he decided to take some food.
Bite was taken and it felt…weird…up until his senses of taste and smell fully kicked in.


Rest of team had kinda enjoyed unraveling of race, being as exciting as you could imagine.
It was both sad and nice to see that they werent only ones to retire from event
Ok, comforting would prob explain the emotion better than just nice…but point is made either way.

Someone noted that for some reason, Gromadon needed to jump with platform on top of him.
This was big event due to big forces involved in moving several tonnes upwards and little bit to the side.
They didnt needed long to figure out potential reason for this strange behaviour


Rather logically, Gromadon went straight to them, still being under platform.
“I SHITTED IN MY FOOD!!!” strong voice announced in Serbian.
-We see…
-Also, its very smelly in here…
Klimentol: I will accompany you towards some woods where we can open the thing for ventilation and you can get some fresh air.
I dont envy Aydar on getting…shittier part of job.
-I didnt said anything and my dad is too young for me to clean after him.
-We needed to improvise…

And so dogs climbed onto platform and returned back to parking lot.
Aydar had indeed jumped off near “bowls” to clean/remove smelly bit from one of them.
Klimentol and Gromadon went exploring on what Sweden can provide in terms of forests, where Gromadon left his place from under the platform.
In fact, he decided to observe race from afar, trying to not get too close to objects like cars or buildings.

After fair amount of time, he returned back in place under platform and returned to parking.
Aydar had removed shit and Gromadon would settle once again.

Dogs had pissed each other off and then needed to be washed out by water to not smell like piss (and shit in case of Aydar).

Ones that are not on track

Manager of supermarket decided that race isnt that interesting. Well, we decided that from now on, he isnt interesting either

Girl is still following race with great care: in some cases ofc care being greater than the others. And no, she didnt exactly care that neither Union or Bricksley positioned themselves particularly high.

Workplace in Stockholm had largely returned to normal, if we excuse going through inventory and packing some of it in van, usually intended for mobile service. Said van will be driven to Holjes to deliver said stuff to…well, team covered in these posts in fact.

We also have certain duo travelling by foot through Stockholm. We arent going to try explaining how they came here or how they heard about what they wanted to know…but they are here and do know.
They had searched on first place they could think off, only to be directed towards certain dealer of Kolondras.
There was lot to uncover here upon arrival and they did looked around for their…family? Friends? We shall know soon.
Somehow, even tho neither of these two knew speaking Swedish, they were able to communicate their request (it does help one of them has son born in this country).
Duo will be returning back and not necessarily in this section of post :wink:

4 Likes
Team If It's Not Punk It's Junk
Some in-between race rp between @Knugcab and myself

the start of a race is an exciting, hectic time. Last minute repairs, double checking things are set up the way you want them to, the red mist that falls when the green flag begins to wave. But once the racers find there groove and the minutes begin to pass, the interest for those in the pits begins to wane. This is were we find Iggy Hill, itching for something a little more exciting than just hanging about the paddock in case the car comes in with issues

“Ight,” he states to the others “I’mma go head to the loo. Alyssa, Ox, you two are in charge. Keep a eye on the kiddo, aye? Make sure she don’ cause too much chaos ou are.”
He wanders the paddock for a while, eyeing up the other teams. He chuckles to himself at the costumes the Team Shift Happens are wearing “Now 'hat be some dedication to a theme,” he thinks to himself as he goes past
“Must be hot wearin’ all that fur. And how is that one operatin’ all those arms? Cor.”
His walk brings him past a pit decorated with the Trafikjournalen logo. Iggy’s curiosity to get the better of him, so he pop’s in to check it out
“Oi! Aren’t ye the lot puttin’ on this race?” he shouts at the people there

Mats Hansen was looking to see who was shouting. When he saw the survivor from the 70s UK punk scene he tried not to laugh too much, and after all, he looked kind of normal compared to some other people here.

“Yeah, more or less so, yes. Can I help you with something?”

Iggy walks over and claps Mats on the back
“Cor! Quite the banger you puttin’ on ere!” he thrusts out his hand to Mats “I am Iggy, be the one runnin’ the Cambridge out air. Err, say, you wouldn’t happen o be any good with carburetors, aye? Seems ours is a bit knickered.”

Mats presents himself and listens to Iggy’s description of his vehicle troubles.
“Well, I guess that I have at least some knowledge, what’s the matter with yours?”

Iggy gives Mats a blank stare “Is wha I said, it’s a bit buggered. Not somethin’ I’ve had to deal wit since my Cambridge Mite got torched in '87.”

Mats slowly starts to wonder if Iggy has been smelling some weird substances in his life.
“Yeah, you know that it is buggered but you don’t know anything more exactly than that, I see… so, what made you draw the conclusion that it was buggered to start with?”

“Ight, you see, the ting’s been sitting for years from wha I can tell. Gods knows when Ox’s pops got the thing. And it seems to once been owned by a bunch of lobbos before im, tweaked it all up. Bloody thing won’ work in a smooth way.”

“Ah, such a carb”, Mats sighed. “Some people should not even be allowed to do repairs on a ballpoint pen, don’t know how many examples I have seen that has been totally messed up by idiots, but they are plenty…”

“Aye, know wat you mean. Nearly caught me death fixin’ up an amp the kiddo blew out last week. Hadn’t fel a kick like that since tourin’ with the Clash in '85!”

Now neither Mats Hansen or Erik Carlén could keep themselves from laughing anymore. Both of them laughed until they struggled to get air. This man was a goddamned survivor, he should have been put on museum or something.“Oh…right.”, Mats said after having recovered from his laughter attack.

Iggy flashes them a crooked smile as they laugh “Anyway, probably won’t be able to look at it til lil Fern comes in from her stint.” he hawks and gobs before continuing “So, any of you got somethin to drink?”

“Unfortunately not”, Mats said, knowing that he probably wasn’t asking for water or a Fanta. “We will all be driving in this race, so…”

Iggy cocks an eyebrow at this response “Ain’t ya supposed to stay hydrated during a race? Ought I read that somewhere…” he pauses, a thought coming to him “Oi! Ya weren thinkin I was lookin for an ale or something, no?” he let’s out a chuckle “Haven touched the stuff since lil Fern was born!” Iggy leans in towards the two conspiratorial like “Though a do fancy the o’asional cheeky smoke, but don’t be telling the missues bout that.” he let’s out a laugh

“Yeah, sure we have some water if that’s all you’re asking for”, Mats said, with Erik trying not to start laughing again in the background. “In fact, not only will you get some water, I can spill it up in the most beautiful cup someone has ever offered you”, he said with a somewhat whimsical smile, and started to fill up his dear “IP Owners club Sweden” cup for him.

Iggy takes the cup, eyeing it questionly “IP owners, are ye? Thought I saw you lot racing one of those big, borin’ things. Saarland oe something or nother?”

“Nah, only me”, Mats said, “the other ones are laughing at my fanatism, haha. Yes, we’re racing a Saarland this year.”

“Pretty big for a racer, won you say so?” He takes a sip “Though, seems there be a few other bigguns out there as well.”

“Yeah”, Mats laughed. “And it is a 2.6 so it has the cast iron inline six that is basically the same as the one they came out with in the mid 60s, front heavy is it’s middle name I guess.”

“I suppose it can’t be no worse than our Cambridge, small sports coupe with a bloody big three litre up front!” He laughs “Right, anyways, wha was it I came here for…? Bollocks. Probably wasn’t important! Best of luck to ya out there a any rate, aye?” Iggy shakes Mats and Erik’s hands before heading off

“I wonder if he even knew why he was coming here to start with”, Mats said to Erik scratching his head.

3 Likes

PART 3
8 PM-MIDNIGHT

Eight hours into the race, three down, thirteen still running. Right now everything seems relatively calm, though, almost empty in the pits except for a refuelling Union. Team Slow and Team Schrott racing seems to have some kind of argument about who is going to drive where on the track, which costs both of them some time, but at least there is no contact between the cars.

The Przenopewien is going into the pits since it seems like the wiring they patched up for the new alternator is too dodgy to reliably work, so they have to redo the wiring correct this time. With the Seongu going in for a fuel stop, every car now has refuelled at least once. The front heavy Saarland is once again showing off how something seems to be able to both understeer and oversteer through the same corner, comical for the observer maybe but costs some time. The FM and Sandhurst is slowed down by being unable to pass the not-very-fast-through-the-bends Saarland.

Team Desert scavengers is entering a corner with a bit too much confidence, spinning around the Union, which means that the Przenopewien has to brake kind of hard. The Saarland is going in for a refuelling. Team Slow seems to think that it might be a nice idea to crash into the WRK of Team Rogue Traders, but it proves to be a very bad idea instead sine the Schnell needs to go to the pits for some serious panel beating.

Oh, Jesus…this is really a showoff between David and Goliath. No, we aren’t getting biblical here, but it is somewhat funny that the Bricksley hits the Seongu in a manner that mostly makes the little hatchback spin around without too much damage while the Bricksley is the next car needing to go into the pits for some panel beating. The Callahan goes in for refuelling and the squealing tyres on the way back on the track might be cool if you’re 12, but in reality it mostly costs them some time. It also costs Team SCS some time when the FM has to brake for the Callahan. Two more cars are getting into the pits. The WRK only for refuelling while the Schnell has something loose in the front suspension after the crash that needs to be fixed.

The Bricksley goes in for refuelling. The Callahan is slowed down by having to avoid a spinning Seongu. The next cars going in to fill up the tank is the Cambridge and the FM. The Sandhurst is trying to pass the Schwarzburg with not too much luck, with the cars being quite close to each other, the Schwarzburg kisses the guardrail and the Sandhurst has to do a quite advanced maneuvre to not create an even larger mess of everything.

The Przenopewien is going in for refuelling, in the last minute, sputtering into the pits. And now we have quite a mess. It starts with the Régal going into the guardrail, causing the Callahan to lose control while trying to avoid the Régal bouncing back on the track, Team “If it’s not punk it’s junk” passing all of them with the mother of all powerslides, and finally Team SCS deciding to nudge the guardrail with the FM instead of getting into the mess. Maybe a good thing that the Sandhurst is in for refuelling, that might have spared at least one car from getting into this. Strangely enough all cars seems to be fully operable after this.

Next car to take a quite heavy guardrail hit is the Przenopewien. The crash have cracked the distributor cap, and to even get to that one some straightening of the front with the good old BFH is needed. The next car to hit the guardrail is the Bricksley, and it seems like the spot welds holding the door in place didn’t hold up to this, so once again it is entering the pits with a flapping door. This time, swerving for people trying to play car pinball becomes a bit too much for Team “If it’s not punk, it’s junk” that loses control and wildly spins around. The FM is the next car having a strong attraction to the guardrail, severely damaging the hood, meaning that serious panel beating is necessary. The Schnell has some braking issues sending it into the guardrail next, it goes into the pits for some panel beating and also a change of the glazed brake pads that obviously didn’t stand up to this hard driving. The Sandhurst is spinning while trying to avoid the Schnell.

When you think that it is getting calmer, the top heavy WRK almost flips over, meaning that Team “If it’s not punk, it’s junk” needs to do some seriously skilled maneuvering to not have the Cambridge crushed under the pickup truck when it gets back on its wheels again.

Half of the race left, and still 13 cars running.

CURRENT STANDINGS

  1. Team Oxracers / #41 Seongu (@AndiD ) - Lap # 837
  2. Team Postgraduate Psychosis / #66 Callahan (@Texaslav ) - Lap # 798
  3. Team Prognosis Negative / #8 Régal (@karhgath ) - Lap # 758
  4. Team Septic Tank / #404 Sandhurst (@stm316 ) - Lap # 758
  5. Team If it’s not punk, it’s junk / #16 Cambridge (@Maverick74 ) - Lap # 749
  6. Team Schrott Racing / #13 Schwarzburg (@Rudzis ) - Lap # 748
  7. Team Trafikjournalen / #23 Saarland (@Knugcab ) - Lap # 738
  8. Team Rogue Traders / #722 WRK (@Fayeding_Spray ) - Lap # 723
  9. Team Slow / #91 Schnell (@interior ) - Lap # 701
  10. Team SCS / #69 FM (@Jaimz68 ) - Lap # 696
  11. Team Shift Happens / #357 Bricksley (@Madrias / @Elizipeazie ) - Lap # 688
  12. Team Desert Scavengers / #47 Union (@TheYugo45GV ) - Lap # 668
  13. Team Shine Quartz / #98 Przenopewien (@Vento ) - Lap # 642
  14. Team Bubblegum / #113 Mons (@cake_ape ) - Lap # 386 (DNF)
  15. Team Spy Kids / #42 Rosewood (@SheikhMansour ) - Lap # 365 (DNF)
  16. Team Mravolinski-Chitco / #90 Saguaro (@MrdjaNikolen ) - Lap #123 (DNF)
9 Likes

Team Shift Happens

On the Track - 4 PM to 8 PM
Sandwiches for Dinner - The Pit Lane (Written with help from Elizipeazie)


8 PM

Kayden wrestled with the bulky Bricksley, trying to both improve their time on the track and not trash the car. The Magistrate had disappeared up into the pit lane, while Team Slow and Team Schrott Racing had a “miscommunication” about who had the racing line.

Then the Przenopewien and the Seongu went into the pits, one for a repair, and the other for gas. The Saarland drifted through the corner in front of him, allowing the Bricksley to sneak past on the lower line, engine growling like a prowling panther in the night. Not that there was anything stealthy about the police car with wailing siren and flashing lights, to be fair, but Kayden wasn’t about to fiddle around with shit to turn off the noise. He looked in the mirror to see the Saarland back in the middle of the lane, blocking the FM and the Sandhurst in the process and letting the giant block of American police car cruise on ahead without an issue.


9 PM - In the Pits

Malavera nodded when Val asked to borrow the keys to the van to go get some rest, handing over the keys and watching as Val wandered over to their rented van for some much-needed sleep. Norse, on the other hand, seemed a little more alert, avoiding the military cot where Rukari was crashed out and snoring as he asked for an energy drink from Kivenaal, who had just pulled out and cracked open a can. Kivenaal handed Norse the other one he had, then said, “Other than this, all I’ve got left is some cola. Don’t worry, though. I have no plans to sleep tonight.”


9 PM - On the Track

Kayden chuckled as the Union Magistrate of team Desert Scavengers suddenly spun around and caused the Przenopewien to slam on the brakes. “Yeah, these things aren’t easy to drive,” he quipped to himself, watching the Saarland crawling in for some gas. Team Slow used the Rogue Traders’ truck as their brakes, trashing the front of their car and forcing the Schnell into the pits.

Kayden smirked as he saw the Seongu in front of him, the roaring 400 cubic inch V8 under the hood almost talking to him, like a demon on his shoulder, telling him to PIT the Seongu. Passenger front quarter panel of the Bricksley met the back of the Seongu, a slight tweak of the wheel sent the Seongu spinning, and the horrid crunching of metal reminded Kayden after the fact that the Bricksley was a little soft from doing that for many, many years. The Seongu looped around in a 720-degree spin and proceeded to race ahead while Kayden was forced to bring the battered Bricksley into the pits for some repairs.

“I spent a week straightening that fender out, Kayden,” Takaraya grumbled, reaching in under the wheel well and punching the dent back out so the hood could be opened again. “Stop wrecking the car.”

Kayden was about to say something when the Callahan shrieked by, and instead, he changed his topic to, “What a bunch of idiots. All that noise and what do they get? A quarter second later on that pit lane exit and they’d have a Franklin-Marshal shoved up their ass.”

As the Bricksley returned to the track, the WRK pickup of Rogue Traders crawled into the pits for some gas, and the Schnell of Team Slow needed some suspension repairs.

Kayden had only been out for what seemed like a few minutes before the fuel light came on, and the engine wheezing as a result told him it was seriously low. The car was fueled up thanks to Kivenaal bringing gas cans out and pouring the fuel in as fast as he could. He looked at the clock on the dash, set to the local time, reading 10 PM, then watched as the Callahan and Seongu nearly had a crash on his return to the track. The Cambridge and FM disappeared up the pit lane behind him. Then the Schwarzburg tagged a guardrail and forced the Sandhurst to swerve quite violently to avoid it.

He rounded a corner to witness chaos unfolding in front of him. The Przenopewien zipping into the pits, the Regal slamming into the guardrail, nearly collecting the Callahan while “It’s Junk” drifted on by, and the FM kissing the guardrail for good measure. The Sandhurst slipped by to disappear into the pit lane for gas, while the cluster of cars straightened out and continued racing.

A lap or two later, the Przenopewien kissed the guardrail hard and arrived in the pit lane by tow-truck. While he was watching the antics, Kayden wasn’t watching the track, banging into the same guardrail and sending the Bricksley spiraling across the track. The door flying open added insult to injury as he cruised back to the pit lane, though the chaos of the Bricksley becoming a black-and-white Disco Pinball seemed to dazzle the driver of “If it’s not punk, it’s junk” enough to cause them to spin out.


Kivenaal sighed as he saw the door hanging open on the Bricksley. “Really? It’s 11 PM, Kayden, and you managed to break my welds?” Kivenaal asked. He sparked up the torch, adding another batch of crude spot welds to the door, and after a couple minutes of digging in the parts box, welded a barn door latch onto the door and the door frame to lock the door shut this time. “There. That should keep it closed.”


Kayden cranked the car over and returned to the track, narrowly missing an impact from the FM as it torpedoed the guardrail, followed by the Schnell. The Sandhurst looped around and shrieked across the track until it settled back down, facing the right way to keep going.

As Kayden passed the WRK of Team Rogue Traders, he gave them a cheeky brake-check, watching them swerve, nearly tip over, and cause team “It’s junk” to swerve wildly to avoid getting squashed by a pickup. The WRK settled down and Kayden chuckled.

At 12:00 on the nose, Kayden made a bee-line for the pit lane, shutting the engine down and trading out the seat for Kaylie. Kaylie pulled her motorcycle helmet on, yanked the seat forward, cranked over the huge V8, and roared out onto the track, chrome hand glinting in the moonlight.

5 Likes

Team Oxracers, Ep. 14: Lucky escape rolls

Previous post

Close to the eight hour mark, the fuel warning light finally came on, and Lucas entered the pits for refueling.

“Everything fine?” Jane wants to know as she opened the Kando’s fuel filler cap.

“Everything alright”, says Lucas as he exits the Kando and stretches himself a bit. “You know what? I’ll make my saving throw rolls right away, before I forget it for my next stint. As these people drive, I really need them!”

Michael approaches, already geared up to take over.

Lucas does his first 1d10 die roll on a nearby table. “Ten!”

“Nice”, Michael comments. “You get to do another one, right?”

“Yes, thanks to my Luck passive skill.” Lucas rolls. “Wow, another ten! You know what? I actually feel fine, I think I can do another stint.”

“You sure?” asks Michael.

“All done!” shouts Jane from the Kando.

“Yes!” asserts Lucas. With a nod from Michael, Lucas goes back into the car and drives off.

Mary joins them. “Why is he doing another run? I thought it was your turn?”

Michael tells Mary about Lucas double critical success rolls for his saving throws in case something goes wrong on the track.

“Alright”, she says. “I’ll update the schedule then. You are still next then.”

**

Out on the track, Lucas quickly settles back into a good rhythm.

An hour or so later he passes the Bricksley right before the pit entrance, as a sudden jolt catches him off-guard. Without thinking, and with just a few unusually and surprisingly well-practiced turns of the steering wheel he manages to catch the spinning Kando before it hits anything or even goes too far off track.

Surprised at his own reaction, he starts to get going again right away and hits the ‘speak’ button in the Kando’s now very austere cockpit.

“What happened? And how did I manage to catch that?”

Mary responds. “The Bricksley hit you from behind, it seems. Everything alright?”

“Yes, all seems fine here.” Lucas looks around and into his rear view mirror. “I can’t see them.”

“That’s because they are now here. In the pits”, Mary replies smugly. “They somehow managed to damage themselves more than the Kando.”

“Why did they do that?” Lucas wonders.

Mary’s voice is now replaced with Corazon’s. “BECAUSE it’s a dog-stab-dog-in-the-back-and-then-overtake-dog world out there! You ALWAYS need to be ready for ANYTHING!”

“Looks like they stabbed themselves in the foot, rather”, Lucas quips. “Did my two critical success rolls for Luck save me?”

“Possibly.” It’s Mary again on the radio.

“You know what? I think I may have stretched my luck too far now with one and a half stints and this catch. Can I come in and hand over to Michael?”

“Sure”, Mary replies. “We get everything ready.”

4 Likes
Team If It's Not Punk It's Junk
The bit were not much happens

With the sun starting to set, Alyssa Young suits up to take the third stint. It turns out that Ox’s run in with Team Spy Kids seems to have messed up the lights a bit, making it difficult for her to see the track properly
“Oh bollock,” she says to herself “I really should have did a few practice laps during the day. I can’t see a bloody thing!”
Due to this, Alyssa takes it fairly easy, basically aiming for corners she can’t see and hoping they’re still there. Two hours pass uneventfully before the Cambridge begins to sputter on it’s empty tank. She pulls in to the pits to find Fern and Ox waiting
“Bloody hell, I don’t know what I’m doing out there”, she tells the others. Fern answers back, “Well, what ever it is you are doing out there seems to be working. We’re up to 5th place! Probably best to keep at it!”

Not long after returning to the track, there’s a bit of excitement. Entering turn four, one of the cars ahead of her clips the inside guardrail, nearly taking out another from the rebound. The Callahan of Team Postgraduate Psychosis loses control, spinning 180 and coming to a stop right were the Wyvern is pointing
“Oh shite!” Is all that is able to cross Alyssa’s mind. Time slows down to a crawl at the moment. She darts her eyes to the rear view mirror to see where the FM behind her is, then flicks her eyes to the empty bit of track on her left. She yanks the wheel in that direction, causing the rear end of the Cambridge to step out and start to rotate. Giving the throttle a boot-full and a bit of opposite lock, she slides past both cars, barely missing the Regal. Time speeds back up to normal the moment Alyssa straightens the Cambridge back out
“Bloody hell, that didn’t just happen, did it?” *she laughs.

The last hour of her stint prove to be even more exciting. Once again, a car ahead of her forgets which way the corner goes and smacks the guardrail. This time she’s not so lucky with her maneuvering. The Cambridge gets into a tank-slapper, oscillating in wilder arcs until it spins completely around. Alyssa shakes her head to clear it before spinning the car back around to get it to face the right direction.
Not fifteen minutes later, more calamity. She’s making an attempt to overtake the big WRK of Team Roque Traders, going side by side into turn one. The big truck blows it’s braking point, going in way too hot. The thing goes up onto two wheels, leaning over at a 30 degree angle. Hypnotized by the sight of the truck’s under carrage, Alyssa drifts closer to to it that she meant to. She snaps back to her senses as the WRK begins to right itself

“Shite!” she yelps, jerking the Cambridge away just as the truck touches down “Bloody hell! My knickers are certainly browner now. Right, I think that’s enough racing for the moment,” she says to herself has she makes her way back into the pits for the end of her stint

2 Likes

Team Slow
Part V- I almost forgot the time window of the Clunkers segments.

Our race was not as eventful as we thought it would be. Matt arguing with the driver of Team Schrott racing (@Rudzis) “I’m taking the racing line, nothing can and will stop me, you can stay there with your one wheel not touching the road!”, The irony of that would come in later. At least the car still drives.

Team Schrott Racing goes past us, and then after some time,
Matt thought it’d be a good idea to use Team Rogue Trader’s car as an guardrail, causing less than desirable damage to the front. Izzy then says “Matt, you moron.” under her breath as she’s watching the race via the pits.

He then drives into the pits and gets the good old hammer and starts beating the panels into shape, Plunger included. At least to an degree to where its tangible. Izzy does work on tightening the suspension. After several minutes, the car gets back on the road. The team swaps drivers yet again. Izzy gets into the car, and launches it out of the pits and onto the track. Matt hears the 1.8 4-cylinder buzzing onto the track. “Glad I told her to fix the front suspension” Matt says as Izzy floored it out of the pits.

The car, despite being crashed, still drives. Monotonous gear whines coming from the car however the team is so used to it that it’s normal. She does an bit of an worse job at racing than Matt, but still usable as a driver. After some time, she takes an turn, and the brakes aren’t working as they should and she crashes into the guardrail, after the FM, she then drives the car to the pits, to replace the likely-shiny brake pads.

She looks behind the rear view mirror and sees an Sandhurst spinning about “I hope this isn’t the final lap for this car” she says, alongside “That was close.” The car is at the pits after some time, The car is jacked up again, and the wheels come off and the duo get to work on replacing the brake pads, that were so worn that they likely turned chrome. Of course that being in an metaphorical sense. Panel beating later (again for the accounted second guardrail damage), and then the wheels come back on after the pads have been replaced, and then Izzy gets back in the car and she starts driving on the track.

3 Likes

Team MCS

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Crackle - Why are we doing this again? Why don’t we just go home…this is getting depressing!
Mopey - It’s not that bad…although either the car, or I, seem to have a magnetic attraction to the barriers.
Crackle - And here I am having to knock the dents out again.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Banging stops

Spanners - For fuck’s sake Crackle…leave the kid alone! If you want to leave then we won’t stop you. This is something we do…unfortunately, this time, I picked a bit of a lemon to race…we’re usually better than this!

Spanners restarts jumping, up and down, on the bonnet to “straighten” it out a bit.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Spanners - Pass the toolbag over…

Spanners drives a couple of 5 inch, self tapping, bolts through the front of the bonnet.

Spanners - That should hold it…let’s go RACING!!!

5 Likes

TEAM TRAFIKJOURNALEN
8PM - MIDNIGHT

"Yeah, as usually, he is taking “Captain slow” seriously", Andersson sighed at Hansen’s driving.
"Hahaha, well at least nobody seems to be able to pass him", Carlén answered, while Andersson was looking over at team Shine Quartz trying to rewire their alternator one more time.

The Saarland rolled into the pits for a refuelling, followed by a very beat up Schell.

"At least it’s not our car that looks like this", Carlén said.
"Damn, I start to like this beast after all", Hansen said. "It has been so totally flawless, almost boring."
"Yeah, as boring as your driving", Andersson said.

Back on track, Hansen managed to dodge all the car pileups that seemed to happen, maybe the “Secure, but not exciting” remarks about the handling when Trafikjournalen first tested the Ambrosia in 1987 still held some truth.

"Whoa, look at that", Carlén woke a slumbering Andersson up, when the WRK went up on two wheels, almost flattening the low-slung Cambridge even more.

They’re banger racers", he answered. “They probably just would have liked it anyway.”, he answered and then fell asleep again.

TO BE CONTINUED…

4 Likes

Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Race: Arrival of trio

GossipDuo

Pit lane of our team was busy, but mostly by virtue of eating food and drinks.
This time, Gromadon would be mentioned only to confirm his presence on parking lot and he will not shit in his food anymore (atleast we hope so).
Mat was tasked with going around to see if anyone needs help, which he understood as opportunity to hang out with hosts one more time(dont worry tho, as Omega joined him and helped him concentrate on task at hand).

After some time, they noticed very big team in both ways you could think of.
Takaraya in particular was noticed and naturally, he was theme of conversation as they moved forward.
-Had you seen that…guy? Thing? Whatever, he is massive.
-(Giggling) Ofc i did, i must wonder what turn of events resulted in that. Bcos that wouldnt seem nice to experience.
-Why not turn around and ask him?..oh wait, he might consider that impolite and react agressively.
-As far as im informed, that team in general tends to be agressive but only if you give them really good reason. I dont see how he may be different. But yeah, i would get to know him better before asking such tricky questions.
-Tricky…having such limbs must be awesome
-…not.
-?
-My genetic basis, who participated in Shitbox Rally along with our dogs and them, gave me brief info on two members of that group that might be relevant.
Like that guy, they have some…mechanical replacements of sort.
VerBanka isnt really into details or she decided to spare me the details, but for those metal limbs to appear…they must had lost biological ones.
-Oh…
-I dont know the details, but rest assured im not willing to dive deep into likely worst experiences of their life
-Maybe someone else in our team would know…we will ask them

Their attention was also drawn towards yet another non-human team.
Rust Scavengers would also do some stuff and likely werent interrupted by these two.
You might complain that i messed up team name. I dont care and likely they wouldnt care either: they are much more likely to gather rust around here as, even being this isolated from usual civilisation, this place can hardly be called a desert.
-Anything you know on these guys? They do seem similar to ones we kinda discussed.
-Thats as much as i could tell you myself. Noone i ever known had seen these.
-Maybe they are relatives?
-I…think they would hang out together in that case, hell, maybe even unite two teams into one.
-Hmmm…maybe they hate each other?
-In that case, im sure they wouldnt be at same race. There could be bloodshed and exactly noone else on track would be able to stop it.
-Oh, i know…maybe they disagreed on car to be used.
-Seems like best possibility

Betrayer we readers happen to know as AndiD would also happen to yield a team that might be interesting to note.
Although…you can always decide to look at Seongu as Mara’s South Korean cousin. Im just not sure how well that description would sit with Mara’s officials and not exactly eager to experience Archana’s finest gulags.
If its our duo to be believed, Oxracers were rolling some dice…without any board game in sight.
-They are rolling dice…without board game to go along?
-Seems like it.
-Why?
-Dunno. Kinda weird tbh.
-What are they doing then? No Risk, Monopoly, or “Man dont get angry” there…
-I guess you dont need board game to just roll some dice

If only duo knew…that this race WAS their board game. And yes, yours truly had “pleasure” of playing all board games i listed, most often game in question being Man dont get angry. That can take a while.

These two had returned to pits for their team and decided to share their thoughts.
-Very interesting thoughts, i must however dissapoint by saying neither me or Aydar know more about it. Jayde seems and likely is someone who saw fair share of battle…prob how he lost his leg
-I guess some Dyre had did that. They do seem capable of doing so and, seeing as world in which SR was ran was likely both homeworld to hosts and Dyre…ye, matches up…probably.
Me and Klimentol had also fought against them on one occassion…fair to say im happy they arent sonething we would encounter on daily basis.

Arrival of the trio

-This is weirdest trip i ever made tbh. Atleast you two havent complained about AC…or music.
And yes, i know you cant understand me.
-…
-…

Van with said group had indeed arrived. Driver had exited the vehicle with groan as he def went out of shape apt for such long drive.
-We have arrived.
-“We?”
Doubts were cleared when his company during drive decided to exit as well, revealing cat and a dog, both looking very old.
Following convo is spoken in Serb and written in English
-How you two came here?
-Well, we arrived in Stockholm. Then we were directed to service center/dealership. Some repeating of your names later, he (pointing at driver) had idea we might like to join you.
Speaking of which, what are you doing here?
-Apparently watching these go around the track.
-Atm yes, but we participated too at beggining. Our brake disc cracked so we needed to retire.
Now we are indeed watching and preparing car for its new daily driver role.
(Switching to English)
I will borrow the wheel for moment, also dont think these two oldies would like to walk that much.
How they were as passengers?
-They are either naturally of non-complaining kind or lack of common language made them as such.
This drive was weird.
-My granpa and uncle are of former kind: afterall they were travelling a lot by themselves back in the day.
-Uncle? I guess granpa refers to dog, but cant see how cat can be your uncle.

Aydar had answered

-Loojoe met Siviko as small kitten during his travelling around. He continued travel with him, gaining a company…and i guess a son…Siviko doesnt have any biological family.
-?
-They all died of diseases, hunger or by being ran over by car.
-Thats equally sad and kinda nice story: he had someone to share his experiences with and kitten got education necessary to survive.

Since they expressed interest in what was said about them, Loojoe requested convo being translated to Serbian

-I can only comment on fact that two of us are hungry and he likely is as well.
-We did brought some more food, but it was in cargo area…will eat in pits.


This resulted in van joining in pits with same crew taking it to track in first place.
Loojoe opened his door and exited first this time, followed by others.
Siviko suggested that they unload rear bench and co-driver seat first upon seeing them
After that was done, new guys went to toilet, relieved themselves then took position on this furniture and went to sleep.
Officially noted crew was unloading the van and fitting stuff inside Saguaro…including bench and seat with dreamers still on them.
Now with refreshed braking power, car would be street legal once again but straying away from Clunker regulations, now having stock number of seats and having re-installed whatever could have been found of interior back in Stockholm.


Mat’s dad had awoken and decided to help however he could, still in kinda slumber.
Which left Loojoe and Siviko in car
-This should be ours, ya know. Cant really travel around on our paws anymore…besides, neither of us is exactly young anymore.
-True…would be so nice knowing you have actual comfy bed and roof whenever you go.
-Maybe you get some pussy, seeing that now you would have somewhere to bang her…i promise i wouldnt interrupt
-REALLY?!?

Quint had good laugh out of it upon hearing REALLY?!? and upon interest hearing the rest.
Matter was brought to rest.

-First you might need to learn how to drive in first place. Besides, im not really convinced that that car would be perfect idea.
-Has roof and rear seat, runs and drives, not to mention its quite beaten already so we dont need to worry about occasional dents.
-It also isnt examined enough for us to be sure it will not break down on you, which it will as it is rather old.
-How old?
-45y old, prob not far off Siviko
-It would understand our struggles.

Rest chuckled on that comment

-Still, as we are yet to fully examine its condition, it can hide some issues that we arent aware off.
Besides, i think it would be much smarter idea to first build some decent car pool of sorts for most or all of us. Maybe it will have much better example or overall better choice for you two.
And yes, having a car to drive would be nice even for much younger rest of population.
-We would be looking forward to that. Hopefully this old dog CAN learn new tricks.
-Certainly hoping so.

After hefty lunch, Mat’s dad decided to head back to Stockholm.
However, after he failed to properly exit pit space with van, it was decided to position Loojoe and Siviko in van and him on rear bench of Saguaro.
Saguaro is in kinda garage space of pits, while van is parked in area of getting fuel and tires
This changed however, as Mat took it out of pits and in parking lot.
He too was tired and joined dreamland right then and there

2 Likes

PART 4
MIDNIGHT - 4 AM

Hansen has been doing a good job with keeping the Saarland in control until now, when he takes a corner with a little bit too much confidence, spinning the car around. Too much confidence seems to be the case with Team Shine Quartz and their Przenopewien too when it munches the guardrail hard enough to knock the engine loose from one of the motor mounts, meaning some time in the pits. In almost the same place, the Seongu also has some contact with the rail, though not with any damage that renders it undriveable. The Bricksley seems to have a dead fuel pump, luckily the team had a spare one, changing it in the pits at the moment. Both the Régal and the Union goes in for refuelling, the Régal in the last minute, sputtering into the pits. And, here comes Team Schrott racing and…oops, seems to have a crash into the FM. Not only is the Schwarzburg very bent out of shape, in the pits they discover the crash also have severely damaged the oil pan. The total amount of damage makes Team Schrott racing wave with the white flag for now. Still in the race, but badly battered and needing heavy panel work is the FM.

From being quite hectic, we have now had it completely calm for almost 30 minutes. Extra much calm in the WRK that certainly is taking it extremely careful, maybe after almost having flipped over earlier.

The next car to hit the FM is the Schnell, being badly damaged from the crash, the Schnell goes into the pits for some panel beating. The WRK also goes in, but just for refuelling. The next car to enter the pits is the Przenopewien, only to replace a blown fuse, though. A spinaround of the Callahan makes the FM munch the guardrail while trying to avoid it, but as with the earlier crash, it is still driveable.

The WRK has some clunking sound in its rear suspension and goes into the pits to see if some bolts needs to be tightened. The Przenopewien gives the Saarland a slight bump, not damaging the Saarland very much but knocking out a headlight on the Przenopewien, meaning some time in the pits. The Régal munches some guardrail and the damage means that there is a long visit in the pits to straighten out the metal. FM and Cambridge both spins out of control trying to avoid flying debris from the Régal.

The Saarland goes in to fill up the tank. The Schnell has been warning for low oil level, which means that Team Slow is busy into the pits with topping off the oil. The WRK is driving around almost unnecessarily careful again, maybe being afraid to tip over for real this time, who knows? The Przenopewien is going in to fill up the tank. The Seongu slightly touches the guardrail and a short visit in the pits is necessary to bend out the scraping front fender to not touch the wheel anymore. The Bricksley is coasting into the pits with an empty fuel tank. The Sandhurst comes too quickly into a corner, spinning around. Next car to refuel is the Callahan, and once again, someone is losing time by trying to show off with leaving the pits with squealing tyres.

The Saarland and Union is being held back a bit by the slowest car in the field, the Przenopewien. We get a report that the FM is once again overheating, standing in the pits to cool down.

Feels like we have heard it before, huh? The Cambridge takes the corners wildly spinning, costing some time for the WRK, Bricksley and Callahan trying not to get into that mess.

Seems like the WRK has some problems with this track, still driving around so carefully that it is almost silly. The Cambridge goes in for refuelling while the Union has some problems with the transmission, which Team Desert Scavengers will try to fix with changing to fresh fluid. The Callahan gives the Régal a bump, the later one being able to continue while the Callahan needs lots of time in the pits for straightening out some panels. The FM spins out of control when trying not to hit those bouncing cars.

CURRENT STANDINGS

  1. Team Oxracers / #41 Seongu (@AndiD ) - Lap # 1120
  2. Team Postgraduate Psychosis / #66 Callahan (@Texaslav ) - Lap # 1034
  3. Team Septic Tank / #404 Sandhurst (@stm316 ) - Lap # 1021
  4. Team If it’s not punk, it’s junk / #16 Cambridge (@Maverick74 ) - Lap # 1004
  5. Team Trafikjournalen / #23 Saarland (@Knugcab ) - Lap # 982
  6. Team Prognosis Negative / #8 Régal (@karhgath ) - Lap # 976
  7. Team Rogue Traders / #722 WRK (@Fayeding_Spray ) - Lap # 932
  8. Team Slow / #91 Schnell (@interior ) - Lap # 924
  9. Team Shift Happens / #357 Bricksley (@Madrias ) - Lap # 919
  10. Team SCS / #69 FM (@Jaimz68 ) - Lap # 917
  11. Team Desert Scavengers / #47 Union (@TheYugo45GV ) - Lap # 892
  12. Team Shine Quartz / #98 Przenopewien (@Vento ) - Lap # 844
  13. Team Schrott racing / #13 Schwarzburg (@Rudzis ) - Lap # 777 (DNF)
  14. Team Bubblegum / #113 Mons (@cake_ape ) - Lap # 386 (DNF)
  15. Team Spy Kids / #42 Rosewood (@SheikhMansour ) - Lap # 365 (DNF)
  16. Team Mravolinski-Chitco / #90 Saguaro (@MrdjaNikolen ) - Lap # 123 (DNF)
6 Likes

TEAM TRAFIKJOURNALEN
MIDNIGHT - 4 PM

“I am getting kind of confident with this ride now, I start to learn where the lim…”, Hansen was thinking, entering a corner with a little bit too much confidence, swinging out the tail of the Saarland, not being able to counter-steer quick enough.

“The power assisted ball type steering is not as quick or reactive to steering input as most competitors rack & pinion units…” - damn, why did his head quote the 1987 Trafikjournalen road test from when the Ambrosia first arrived all the time, he thought.

"At least he missed the guardrail while trying to be captain fast", Andersson said in the pits.

"Yeah, the polish orange…thing, and the korean fridge, were less lucky", Carlén said, looking at the stone dead Bricksley coasting into the pits.

"Also, do the FM have magnets behind the bumpers?", Andersson sighed. "If it’s not in the guardrail, someone crashes into it."

"Seems like Schrott Racing is out of business for now", Carlén answered.

"Seems like we have a new Captain Slow too", Andersson laughed and pointed at the WRK.

They both shook their heads when the Schnell crashed into the FM, as well as when the FM once again munched some guardrail.

"I told you, that thing has magnets.", Andersson sighed.

Meanwhile in the car, Hansen felt a light “thud”, looked in the rear view mirror and saw an one-eyed Przenopewien following him.

“We are pretty sure that the Ambrosia Pilger will fulfill its niche on the family car market. Not only is it very practical and roomy, the thoughts of having lots of metal surrounding you to keep the family safe, is something that springs confidence in many buyers.”

“NOOOOO, NOT AGAIN”, he thought.

Going in for refill, he…

“With the new 2.6 litre Varitek version of the inline six, for 1990 the Ambrosia finally has a decent mid range alternative to offer between the less refined 4-cylinders and the expensive 3 litre ES model. It only becomes appearant that the engine is from the 60s when standing at the pump - mileage is certainly not impressive, not even for a car this size”

"NOOOOOOOO, STOP THIS!", he yelled, even if it at least was a bit original that he now had another road test of the 1990 model 2.6 litre in his head.

"We can’t stop refuelling now!", Carlén sighed.

"Nah, just forget it then…, Hansen said, a bit blushing.

A while later he closed up on the Przenopewien, being a bit annoyed by its slow pace but still he kept a secure distance.

“Orange polish thing, you’re not butt-sniffing me one more time!”, he thought. In the mirror, he spotted the Union, and it seemed like the driver of that car had similar thoughts.

However, two thirds of the race was now done, and it was time to enter the pits for a driver change…

TO BE CONTINUED…

5 Likes

Shift Happens

The Race - 8 PM to Midnight


Midnight in the Bricksley

Kaylie pushed the car hard out of the pit lane, the engine stumbling a time or two on her return to the track. She saw the Saarland spin out, followed by the Przenopewien slamming into the guardrail, and in the same spot, the Seongu passed the Bricksley, then nailed the rail and caused Kaylie to slam on the brakes to avoid it.

When she tried to stomp on the gas to go again, the car had no power, struggling to maintain an idle let alone respond to the throttle input. She pulled off of the track and waited for the tow back to the pits.


Midnight in the Pit Lane

With Norse having gone to bed as well, this left just the aliens awake, with exception to the still-snoring Rukari on a military cot. When Kaylie arrived by tow truck, Kayden was the first to ask, “What happened?”

“I think the fuel pump shat itself. She barely idles now,” Kaylie responded.

Kivenaal rummaged around in the toolboxes and uncovered a box with a spare fuel pump, then looked around at who was there. “Right. Takaraya, we need to lift the car up so that I can drop the fuel tank. Malavera, help him out,” Kivenaal said.

“Wait, you’re not going to…” Kayden said, motioning to the Bricksley and mimicking picking up a box.

Kivenaal chuckled, then said, “Val and Norse are sleeping. They won’t see it happen. Takaraya, you get the heavy end with the engine in it.”

Sure enough, the team put on a bit of a show as Takaraya braced his hands under the front suspension while Malavera lifted from the rear axle, the two of them lifting the Grand Warden - with Kaylie still inside - as if it weighed no more than a box with a computer inside of it. Kivenaal pulled the fuel tank, swapped the dead pump for the good one, reconnected the power and fuel lines, bolted the tank in, and watched as the two Khalans set the car back down gently.

Kaylie turned the key on, hearing the new pump whirring up to speed, then building pressure. She bumped the key to “start” and the engine immediately roared to life. She looked at the Regal and Union as they re-entered the track after a stop for gas, and then the Schwarzburg ended up on a trailer while the FM came in for some panel beating, with Malavera offering some assistance with the sledgehammer. (@Jaimz68 )


12:30 on the Track

Kaylie returned to the track in a flurry of sideways driving and wheelspin, passing the WRK pickup as it was taking corners extra slow now. She straightened the car up and kept it going fast for 30 minutes, enjoying the calm before the storm.

And the storm surely did arrive, as the FM got rear-ended hard by the Schnell. The Schnell disappeared up into the pits to get the mangled front end straightened out again. They were followed by the WRK, needing fuel desperately, followed by the Przenopewien with a blown fuse. The Callahan spun out, causing the FM to eat the guardrail, but other than looking like it’d been in two wrecks, the FM kept on going.


The Pits, 1:30 AM

Kivenaal watched as the WRK cruised in to have the rear suspension checked out, followed by the Przenopewien needing a headlight replaced. Then there was a savage-sounding crash that was bad enough that Kivenaal got on the radio to Kaylie, “Watch out coming around the turn before the pit lane, the Regal scattered parts everywhere. They’re coming in on a tow truck, and the FM and Cambridge both spun out trying to avoid getting hit by a bumper.”

“Gotcha. Big crash by— Twin Suns! How can one car shed so much shit!? It’s like the carpet in the living room after Malavera sheds, except with car parts instead of fur!” Kaylie replied.


Behind the Wheel, 2 AM

Kaylie passed the Saarland as they went for more gas, while the Schnell was threatening to hand-grenade the engine. “Damn fools driving around with the oil light on,” she grumbled. “Whole rotating assembly’s going to be trashed.” She swerved around the WRK taking corners slowly again while the Przenopewien needed a tank of gas.

Then Kaylie slammed on the brakes to avoid rear-ending the Seongu after it kissed a guardrail and needed a visit to the pits. (@AndiD ) Takaraya offered his assistance in straightening out the fender, his titanium hands gleaming in the moonlight. This, unfortunately, meant he wasn’t able to help when the Bricksley coasted in, courtesy of Kaylie running it out of gas. Malavera hustled the cans over to refuel the car while Kivenaal reorganized the toolbox.

Kaylie returned to the track in time to see the Sandhurst spin out, and heard the Callahan squealing tires behind her. She scowled as the Bricksley lunged out in front of the Przenopewien, avoiding getting slowed down like the Union and the Saarland, though the situation might have helped the FM cool off if they’d been there. Instead, they got to enjoy the pits.

Then the Cambridge swerved around the Bricksley, WRK, and Callahan, lost control, and forced all three of them to perform some evasive maneuvers to avoid hitting the idiots who spun out or each other.

Sure enough, a few laps later, Kaylie passed the WRK again, clawing another lap back as the Rogue Traders cruised slowly through another corner. The Cambridge zipped up the pit lane for gas, while the Union Magistrate needed some transmission fluid instead. The Callahan rear-ended the Regal, and like so many other rear-end collisions, the bumping car needed more work than the bumped car, forcing the Callahan into the pits. In the chaos, the FM spun out and lost a bit of time.

Kaylie got on the radio, then told the crew, "Wake up Rukari. I know I’ve got two more hours behind the wheel, but he doesn’t need to be half asleep when he gets his second turn.

Kivenaal chuckled, and at 4 AM, kicked his brother solidly in the ass, making him yowl and swear in Valraad as he got out of the cot. “You make breakfast, then. Not funny,” Rukari grumbled.

5 Likes

Team Shift Happens; the human side of things

once again, not race critical, thus hidden, yada yada yada, you know the drill.

RP in here

Both Valentin and Norse are currently asleep.

gotcha! :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes