TEAM TRAFIKJOURNALEN - PRE-RACE TO 8 PM
Sorry. I really had 1000 other things getting into the way of finishing this. I hope I can catch up better in the future.
With the IP Brigadier and car trailer for this year replaced by a Sanju LD40 car transporter, our team was rolling with the brown Archanan barge towards Höljes. Filip Andersson complained as usual, meaning that the truck wasn’t much of an improvement. Mats Hansen’s counterargument was that now they could at least listen to the clattering diesel at 90 km/h legally instead of 80, all while some tape with trucking music was barely heard when it tried to kill the dried out early 90s speakers.
Arriving at the track and unloading the ARVA, Filip Andersson took a little look around the pits, and quickly came into contact with the Seinäjoki speed freaks.
“Oh hello, Filip Andersson here, from the magazine’s own team, nice to meet you. Uhm…and I see that your weapon of choice was a Sedlak.”
As the rest of the team was now busy doing whatever they wanted, some of them eating, some playing Venttii and some just wasting time, Jani and Alexandra were sitting with each other, smoking and talking about cars, as it seemed. They were talking in English, and while the girl seemed to perfectly speak it with a slight Canadian accent, the blonde guy was straight up talking in rally english.
*Jani: “Yeah, the new K35R is powerful, but the K40R…another different beast.” *
Alexandra: “Those are really fuckin’ rare and really fuckin’ expensive though. And also really fuckin’ unreliable, but still, my dream car.”
Jani: “Yeah, that V8 is the be- oh wait! Is that the magazine’s team?”
Jani had noticed a member of the official Trafikjournalen team approaching them. And while Alexandra waved at him openly, Jani was definitely slightly less open, however friendly, for a Finn, giving him a slight smile.
Alexandra: “Yo, 'sup. You know, it’s nice to meet you. Alexandra Boyd, the pleasure’s all mine, and we’re the…Speed Freaks, what was the place again? I don’t know Finnish, I’m sorry.”
Jani: Seinäjoki Speed Freaks. Really nice to meet you, I’m Jani Kyllonen, and…yeah. That’s our car, first generation Sedlak Silva, 1.8 Turbo engine and 4 wheel drive model. Found it in a shed…well, Akseli found it in a shed, he’s…there cleaning the truck.
Alexandra: I don’t think 'ya should go talking to him now, unless 'ya want him to last out. He’s pretty…into his little private moments.
sorry for the wait
Filip: Oh, hum…the 4 wheel drive…turbo. Yes. That’s something nice. Do you know what some genius decided we should drive this year? A fucking ARVA Kondor!
Alexandra: An…ARVA? What’s that?
Jani: The real question is, how do you find one that is still alive?
Alexandra: Is it some obscure Euro brand I don’t know about-
Filip: It is a fucking shitbox from Archana that was supposed to be “luxurious”. All it does is shakes and gulps fuel and weighs like if it is carved out of lead. And thiis one is beat to shit by some farm kids already. What are our chances here, you think?
Alexandra: Fuck, I think everyone here’s mostly on the same boat…shit, it can’t be worse than all of the other cars in here.
Jani opened a pack of cigarettes, offering one to Filip. Do you smoke? Want one?
Filip looked over at Alexandra. “Eh, if you don’t know what an ARVA is…you don’t know how bad it is either. Fuck. It has a giant V6 that makes just a little bit over 100 hp. Not even malaise era yank tanks were that bad. And said V6 is made out of some Archanan…alloy…that probably weighs like lead. Fuck. I wish I had your car…”
Looking over at Jani he kindly rejected the offer. “Nah…nothing for me but thanks anyway.”, and left.
The next car he saw was a Mara, that he had mixed feelings about. Knowing that someone else brought a brown, Archanan barge? Good. But on the other hand, Maras were a bit more…progressive…than the Arvas. They probably would drive in circles around the ARVA. A Vortex looked like if it could be worryingly fast, a WAZ? Well, another Archanan shitbox but one that actually could outrun its own shadow. Some cursing in German was heard around some ex police cruiser Globus, there was also a white Brunelle, he stopped to say hello to the team members, but realized he could not stay with every team and talk, so he went further.
There were indeed some mad ass builds too. An Ishii that looked like if it was heading towards a zombie apocalypse. Someone had welded an exocage around a DAW which almost looked like cheating. A Torrento looked like if it was lifted from the FIRESTARTERZ game (see AGC24 for reference). The Hooligans were here this year too with a sad looking Bricksley that maybe could rival the ARVA in shittyness. Some Phoenix pickup looked like if it was close to falling apart too.
A Flint coupé with a powerful engine and all wheel drive could be a strong contender - if the advanced technology would stay together. Some cars looked more like if they had survived some discount version of pimp my ride, like an Astral and a Mishuto. Other cars were surprisingly normal, there was a red Cutter, an equally red Cago, a blue VerBanka that would probably at least be reliable and economical, if not the fastest on the track. And a silver Qua? Well, they were tricky to drive and not very fast, so at least the ARVA could probably beat that one.
Filip Andersson had some arguing with the other team members about that he appearantly acted nervous and stupid just because a girl appeared in the pits, which he of course denied.
Finally it was time for racing, and it was decided that Erik Carlén should take the first hours, at least they could have a chance to get some laps before the car fell apart, with their best driver… It was slow but steady at the start, some gravel was showering it from the spinning Astral at the start, but other than that rather calm. The first drama was once again caused by the Astral when hitting the Sedlak.
Some hours in, however…
BANG!
The ARVA could not really stay in its line when a Flint did hit the rear corner of it. All Carlén could see was the Cutter approaching it, thinking “fuck…”, but at the last second, the Cutter disappeared from his point of view, while a Torrento was passing close to the side window of the ARVA.
"Oh well, that’s just shitbox racing as it is…, he said to himself, managing to squeeze in the ARVA behind the WAZ. Maybe some fatigue was starting to kick in, because not too long after…
BANG!
“Oh shit, there was the Torrento…”, he thought for himself, hearing something on the radio soon afterwards.
“Why did you take your revenge on the Flint out on the Torrento?”, Mats Hansen was laughing.
“Because unlike you I know where the accelerator is!”
Maybe he knew it too well, since he somehow got his revenge on the Astral it seems like, sending the gravel flying over it, when managing to pass it with a powerslide. Fact is, maybe out of boredom he seemed to think that this was turning into some kind of drifting event. He took it a bit calmer for a while, however, after seeing a panicking Catherine Jansdatter almost hitting him from behind with the Qua.
A while later, the ARVA rolled in for its first pitstop.
“Hey, it is holding up well!”, he said to the other team members that started to fill up the tank.
“Yes. And barely outruns the parts flying off it when they do”, Filip Andersson answered cynically.
“WHAT THE FUCK, DID YOU SEE?..”, Hansen was shouting. The DAW with its deathtrap exocage almost turned into a rolling marble on the track.
“Who did ever allow that scrapheap monster to enter the track?”, Andersson said, shaking his head.
With Carlén leaving the pits, the rest of his time racing was rather uneventful. Well, for him at least…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Written in co-operation witn @nicxv
