[center][h1][b]Friday June 30th, 2094 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal, Canada Practice Race [/b][/h1][/center] [center][h2][color=00aeef]Alexander Knight[/color][/h2][/center] [b]Soundtrack: [url=https://youtu.be/Xydf351l-gw?feature=shared] The Score - Unstoppable[/url][/b] Alexander was in for a long day. He was in the Valkyrie paddock for the practice runs for the Team Valkyrie Junior League Pilots, Scarlett Collins and Anna Hausmann and his Formula AG pilots, Paul Mulder and Dorian Hornfleur. Alexander had met with their Zap Sports Drink representative about extending and expanding their Team Sponsorship to include their Junior Academy pilots. Alexander had introduced Scarlett and Anna to the representative. Alexander could tell that both pilots were nervous. Scarlett did alright but Anna was going to need some training and coaching. She was so nervous she babbled and sounded like a squirrel hyped up on caffeine. The Zap Sports Drink representative was interested in the idea but was not sold on the amount that Alexander was requesting to put their name on the junior team. It was a starting point. Alexander expected that he would probably have to work harder and find more sponsors to come near the funding the major league team received. He wanted to make things easier for their Junior League Pilots and help them get more training and support. It made sense to start with existing sponsors who were already working with the team. The team already had the logos and a relationship with them. Alexander stayed in the paddock and paid special attention to Scarlett and Anna’s practice laps. Scarlett was currently ranked 5th in the Junior League while Anna was in 10th. Alexander hoped to help coach both women and help them improve their skills. Alexander had reviewed the reports by the team trainers, their ship data, and video of their races so far this season. He carefully reviewed all their data to find key skills they could work on that would help propel their careers forward. He had a plan in place to teach them the marketing, public relations, and business side of formula antigravity racing. As a former pilot, he was well qualified to identify where their skills were lacking on the track. His focus had been on long term planning and had to be on Paul and Dorian. The long term health and sustainability of the team required him to look closer at the junior league academy pilots as well. Alexander had reviewed the program and found it lacking. Currently potential junior academy pilots applied for a spot in the program and only ten were chosen to attend a four week Team Valkyrie summer boot camp. Those ten pilots competed all the way through boot camp with two winners receiving support for that year of competition in the junior league representing Team Valkyrie. Junior Pilots were given older equipment, some basic support with travel and lodgings, and a much smaller support team. The junior pilots shared one dedicated engineer and one mechanic. When the ships were at headquarters, the entire engineering and mechanic team would support them but the priority was always on the primary team pilots. There was no push to update the older machines for the junior league. They also didn’t currently support any kind of pilot modifications for the junior team. Often junior pilots used their endorsements to purchase and pay for treatments and augmentations. Racing was an expensive sport and most candidates came from wealthy families that could afford to help their pilots pay for augmentations and the things that the team didn’t support. That unfortunately often left talented pilots such as Scarlett Collins who came from humble means without a way to obtain those augmentations that allowed a pilot to up their game into the top tier. Scarlett had lucked into a nonprofit endorsement with the Mulder Foundation that had helped her with a few basic pilot augmentations after she was picked up by Team Valkyrie’s junior league. Team Valkyrie’s Junior League Academy was good and known for producing future champions and good pilots. It was one of the academy’s that everyone fought to get into. The boot camp training was extremely competitive but the potential pilots chosen for the summer boot camp program almost always excelled after attending, if the boot camp doesn’t break them. The boot camp was nonstop action where the pilots lived at headquarters for 4 weeks and were pushed to their mental and physical limits. The pilots went through classes on theory, tactics, and technology. They had daily physical training, simulator training, and track time. There were no days off. The pilots were scored on physical fitness, mental fitness, performance, and piloting skill. Alexander knew that most of the team had their hands full with the primary pilots. He was asking them to take on more work temporarily while he found the funding to make the permanent changes to the program that he wanted to see. He wanted them to have more dedicated support team members including a physical trainer or physical therapist that could travel to them and a skilled experienced mentor and teacher to lead the academy. Alexander was going to look for a retired pilot that came from Valkyrie’s Academy or drove for them that would be interested in mentoring and teaching younger pilots. He would begin looking for those who would be interested in the position and vetting them for compatibility. He didn’t want to hire someone who was a great pilot but that sucked at teaching and mentoring. It would require the right personality. He was tempted to ask Florence if she might be interested in the position. He expected that there would be some push back in the beginning but that the team would trust him and work with him till funding and hiring was complete. Alexander felt this would be an excellent use of interns. Yes, interns had to be supervised but it would be easy to have the interns do the bulk of the work and then have one of the full time team members review it and provide guidance to them. The interns would then be more able to take some of the grunt work off the full time team members’ hands freeing them up to do so. It would also bring more future talent to the team in terms of promising interns in marketing, public relations, physical trainers, nutritionists, physical therapists, medical interns, engineers, and mechanics. He knew he could make this work but it would take a lot of extra work on his part to get it up and moving and pay for the extra people. Interns typically worked cheaper than a full time professional but a paid internship with a letter of recommendation from the team could give them the break they wanted into their dream job. They might discover some amazing talent to bring on board and add to their team as well. Alexander had managed to get a large endorsement commitment from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat for the junior league team. They jumped at the chance to endorse the Junior Academy as well. Alexander was working with a high tech sportswear company called Hood Tech Sportswear that had come to him about sponsoring this year’s Summer Academy Boot Camp. Alexander had been approached by a new sports supplements company that was a start up, Rocket Sports Nutrition. They wanted to sponsor the main team but Alexander was not sure it was a good fit for the main team. The company was just starting out and very successful but he was not ready to tie the Team’s name to the major league team. He compromised and suggested a one year trial as a sponsor for the Junior League Team and they jumped at the chance. Alexander felt that they were a better fit there for now. His plans for the Junior League team were coming together. He sipped on his third cup of coffee as he gave up trying to peer through the rain to watch the junior pilots on their practice laps. They were slated to run through this morning with the primary antigravity league doing their practice laps this afternoon. Alexander managed to carve out a few hours of his time to meet with the new Junior League Sponsors, introduce them to the junior league pilots and set up some endorsement filming with them for this afternoon. He was grateful that Katherina had loaned a few members of the marketing team to oversee that project. He had smiled when Katherine told him they had been excited to be tapped for the project. He leaned over the junior team engineer’s shoulder to watch their screen as Scarlett put her ship through its paces. He watched the monitor since he couldn’t see the ship but as a blur in the rain. He followed the action on the cameras around the track and reviewed the data stream as the engineer watched in real time coming from the ship. Scarlett had some raw talent but she needed more track experience. She was making some very rookie mistakes. Mistakes that only experience taught you from racing on different types of tracks in different types of weather. She struggled in the rain. She was struggling to trust her ship’s optics and equipment and was slower and more cautious because of it. She was slowing too much in the corners and hairpin turns and it was costing her speed and time to regain that speed. Anna was even worse. Anna lacked Scarlett’s focus and was failing to commit to the speed and racing lines in the corner. She backed off every time and Alexander worried that it would be worse if there was another pilot challenging her space. It was subtle and not very obvious but someone who had been racing would spot it. He didn’t want to see her panic and crash because she wasn’t used to trusting her instruments as much. She challenged and defended great in the straight ways but Alexander saw the pattern in the tighter corners. Here in Montreal it was very evident at the Wall of Champions hairpin curve. The mistakes the pilots were making were common ones that experience would solve as they either got it as their confidence grew or they would never get past this point. Some pilots never managed to push past that final commitment barrier that took them from potential to amazing and top tier talent. The Junior League is where the cream of the crop rose to the top and got the experience to leap this final hurdle. It was where pilots learned to be able to handle the ludicrous speeds and make the daring overtakes that kept fans on the edge of their seats. It was where future champions demonstrated the level necessary to make it in the major league. He gave both pilots his feedback and told them to review the curves and their choices through the recorded video. He told them to review and practice the racing line they wanted. He told them they needed to spend more time practicing on utilizing their HUD and the ship’s instruments for navigation when they needed to pilot in bad weather conditions. They had to learn to trust their instruments. He told Anna to commit, to pick a racing line and stick it. He told Scarlett to work on her timing. She was committing but a little too late which was costing her like a half second which could let off the throttle and slow a little and then hit it again. For Scarlett it was a timing issue. Alexander left them with his advice as he went on to check on his primary league pilots and check in with other sponsors. [hr] [color=gold][center][h1][i][b]DELTΔ HYPER[/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color][color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Episode Nine: The Wall of Champions La Sauce[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [hr] Paul had taken off the lacy white apron that the producers had pranked him with. He had gone along with it and hoped he pulled off cool and collected instead of the butt of the joke by owning it. Dorian had flat out refused and had been grumpy and indignant since he saw the food. He had no idea that his teammate was such a food snob but then the chef that made most of their meals at headquarters was a French master chef. Paul had to say that they ate well even with their diets being very restricted and regimented to give them the best nutrition. That included having food prepared to get the most out of the nutrition it provided. They had the best of both worlds with great tasting and nutritious food. Paul didn’t bother to hide his amusement over Dorian’s over the top reaction to the poutine challenge. Paul had enjoyed cooking. He had a great time and Dorian’s antics were amusing to him since his reputation was that of being a gentleman. Paul glanced over at his teammate and noted he had taken the apron off. Dorian stood with his arms crossed and still looked grumpy. Aurora brought them over to a table set with a white table cloth. On it was a plate of poutine that was supposedly cooked by the Carrera Condor team of Bea and Ava. The plate of poutine had golden-brown fries topped with garlicky beef stock gravy, toasted cheese and diced stir fried sausage and a sprinkling of spring onions. [quote]Aurora waved to the plate of poutine. [color=ed1c24]“Bon Appetit Paul and Dorian. You get to try the poutine created by Ava and Bea of Team Carrera Condor. Please give their poutine a try and let us know how they did.”[/color] [/quote] Dorian looked horrified and disgusted. He looked down at the plate on the table and back up to Aurora shaking his head in horror. “Non! Les saints m'aident!” Dorian picked up the fork like it was a spider going to bite him. He took a deep breath and stabbed one piece of potato. He closed his eyes and wrinkled his nose as took the smallest nibble. He chewed and acted like he was dying. He swallowed and grabbed a glass of water. He had tears in his eyes as he walked away mumbling under his breath in French about the fine print in contracts and the sanctity of French cuisine. Paul watched his teammate with amusement and then concern. He hoped he would be okay. He had never seen this side of him before. Aurora looked at Paul expectantly. He gave her an amused grin. [color=fff200]Paul: “He’s sensitive. He is very serious about his food. I am game.” [/color] He took a big forkful of fries, steak and gravy. He made sure to get a little bit of everything in the bite. He put it in his mouth and began to chew. It was not bad. His eyes watered a little at the amount of garlic in the dish. He picked up the glass of water next to the plate and took a drink. Sadly the overwhelming taste of garlic didn’t go away. [color=fff200]Paul: “It was not bad. Just a little overwhelming with the garlic. I bet the extra garlic was Ava’s idea huh? I don’t mind spice but holy garlic Batman! Hey Bea! I guess this proves I am not a vampire. I didn’t go up in flames! I passed the test! The spring onions were a nice finish.”[/color] He laughed as he wiped his tearing eyes once more. His sinuses were clearing up nicely. He gave a thumbs up to the camera with a cheeky grin. [hr] [center][h1][b]Saturday July 1st, 2094 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal, Canada (Federated American States) Qualifying [/b][/h1][/center] [hr] Dorian’s qualifying run started out great. He had a great start. He was feeling it. The ship was responding well. The new neural link was faster than his old one. He was not adjusting to his as fast as Paul did. He loved the speed and responsiveness though. It gave him a fresh edge. He was flying and nailing the turns, laying down what felt like a perfect lap. Then he over steered into a hairpin turn. He had then over corrected as he got the ship back on the track. It cost him time as he had to slow significantly to get the situation under control. He had almost binned the ship into the wall. Dorian cursed in fluid French as he got back on the track and completed his qualifying lap. He knew that mistake cost him dearly. The only thing he could do was make it up during the race. He had the skills. He had the right ship for overtaking here in Montreal. He just needed to focus and trust his new interface instead of questioning what it was telling him. It was a rookie mistake. [hr] Paul breathed out as the countdown to start happened. He was off with a great start. He was loving his new neural interface. He felt like he was one with the ship. Between the new interface and the cognitive training that they had him working on, he was able to use it more effectively. He felt like the ship was more responsive. It responded to his demands faster. With the neural interface support, the rain was a nuisance but he was able to utilize the ship’s cameras, sensors, radar, and lidar to see just fine. The new interface made racing in the rain easier than the last time Paul had to do it. He felt as if it was seeing more and further this time. He was able to keep up with all the data coming in from the sensors this time and his eyes didn’t matter as much. The ship left huge rooster trails of water in his wake as the ship seemed to pierce the rain causing eddies in the ship’s wake. Paul leaned into the ship’s systems to make sure he put the ship where he wanted it to go. He didn’t let the rain cost him any speed. He chose his racing line and pushed the ship. He feathered the throttle letting off the speed to skate around the corners without hitting the air brakes unless he had to. He loved the higher walls which allowed him to use the antigravity to slingshot the ship around the hairpin taking the ship into a barrel roll to use the speed to sling the ship around the corner. He laughed and let out a squeal of delight as adrenaline and the ship gave him the best roller coaster experience ever. Paul shot over the finish line and almost kept going. He was in a zen-like space when Carmella’s happy and excited voice broke the spell with her excitement. [color=bc8dbf]Carmella: “Congratulations Paul, that was P4 and a new personal best for you in the rain.” [/color] Paul responded as he pulled the ship into the paddock and parked it. [color=fff200]Paul: “Thanks Carmella. Now if I can only hang onto it. We will see after everyone is done.” [/color] Paul unplugged from the ship after shutting it down. He popped the canopy and waited for the stairs to be pushed over before he climbed down. He smiled as he was surrounded by a happy and excited crew. Paul looked over the mechanics, engineers, and everyone else that helped to put him in the ship. Paul looked out over them from the top step. Paul gave them an excited and grateful smile. [color=fff200]Paul: “Thanks everyone. I wouldn’t be here today without your help. I appreciate you all getting the ship rebuilt in time for Montreal. Thanks for all your hard work. This one's for you!” [/color] They cheered him and pandemonium reigned momentarily in the paddock. He laughed and shook his head as he finished climbing down the stairs. He shook hands and greeted the team that allowed him to be successful on the track. They were professionals though and quickly went back to doing what they did. He walked off towards the pilot’s area with a smile. He had enough time for a quick shower and change before he had to face the press. [hr] [color=gold][center][h1][i][b]DELTΔ HYPER[/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color][color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Canada Commentary [/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Paul had taken a quick shower and changed before facing the press pack and his mandatory interview with Delta Hyper. Paul was wearing shorts in a special tech material that wicked away heat and moisture. The fabrics were designed for the heat. He was also in a team racing polo in the same material that had tech that created the team symbol and flashed various sponsor logos on it. [quote][color=ed1c24]Aurora: "Paul, how are you feeling about the recent string of successful qualifying stints? You seem to be able to extract a few more tenths in the ship over the last few races compared to Dorian, what do you think it is you're finding with the ship this year, or are the team tailoring it more to your liking more than Dorian's feedback?"[/color][/quote] Paul threw back his head and laughed but then looked contemplative. He shrugged since it was part of Alexander’s strategy but he didn’t think it was necessarily a big secret. He looked at ease and gave Aurora a mischievous smile as he answered the question. [color=fff200]Paul: “Well Aurora, it sounds as if you have not heard or figured out Alexander Knight’s strategy for the team this year. Knight is having the engineers tune our ship’s to the individual pilot and their racing style. The engineers and mechanics do their best to make the changes we request and Knight is doing his best to support our requests. I have to give our new head engineer, Cavan Mitchell credit for managing to get those changes done. My thanks to him and the team for getting my ship rebuilt and ready for racing here in Montreal. With that said, some of those requests are easier than others to implement. As to why I have been performing better than Dorian, I can’t say. I wouldn’t want to presume to answer that for him. My guess would be that I am younger and more flexible and adjust to the changes faster than Dorian. Or that I can explain what changes I want to the engineers in a way they understand better. Which would result in my ship getting dialed in faster resulting in more practice time. I would argue we get equal attention and support from Alexander and the team.” [/color] Paul shrugged as he honestly didn’t know why he would be performing better than Dorian. It was not his job to answer for his teammate but he certainly wasn’t stupid enough to throw his teammate under the bus or give the screamsheets any kind of fodder. They would try to make Dorian his primary rival and blow it up into a story where he hated the man. Simply put he didn’t. Paul felt Dorian was responsible for his own performance. He had not seen any bad or sloppy habits he had that affected his performance. Dorian was still performing very consistently. [hr] [center][h1][color=fff200]Social Media[/color][/h1][/center] [center][b][color=fff200]Paul Mulder @ValkyriePaul: [/color][/b][/center] [color=fff200]Hello race fans! I promised you details on the Mulder Foundation Gala. It will be held on Friday July 26th in Brussels at the Art and History Museum in Belgium. The gala will be attended by myself and fellow rookie pilots, Hyeon-Ae Han, Kais Zenix, and Bea Ward. The formal catered event will include a silent auction. My fellow rookie pilots have donated some time and talent to include things in the silent auction. It will be a great evening of food, dancing, and entertainment. All for a great cause, to help underprivileged children in Europe chase their dreams of being an athlete or an artist. You can help support the work the Mulder Foundation does by purchasing a limited edition t-shirt with Bea Ward’s art on it, buying a ticket to attend the event, bidding on the silent auction items, or donating directly. Check out the amazing things lined up for auction. I hope to see you there![/color] [color=fdc68a][Link to the Mulder Foundation Website which has a special event page set up for the event. There are pictures of all the silent auction items and descriptions. There is a video of Kais Zenix painting the motorcycle he donated with a group of young excited children. The finished motorcycle is a colorful collage and mix of talents finished with Kais Zenix’s signature in paint on the tank. There is a picture of Kais posing with the bike looking serious with his arms crossed next to it. There is a mix of signed items from team Zygon by Hyeon-Ae, there is a picture of the artwork Bea created for auction. There is a picture of the t-shirts being produced for sale with Bea’s artwork on it and a link to order one. Paul had donated one of his helmet’s for the season that he had signed with documentation of authenticity and accompanying information on the race and a picture of him wearing it. He had also donated a private trip around the race track in one of the team’s dual seat ship’s as a VIP experience. There are other things that have been donated for the auction that include other pieces of art by famous artists, framed photographs from photographers, cruises, a weekend stay in a famous actress’ mountain cabin, a meet and greet with a few different famous singers, tickets to the Russian Ballet, the Vienna PhilHarmonic Orchestra, and a few different musicals around Europe. Most of the silent auction items were very high end collectibles, experiences, tickets, and art. There were some more affordable items. Smaller items had been bundled together into gift baskets. There was something for everyone to bid on in a variety of price ranges. Tickets to attend the gala were limited to 500 and $500 Euro each.][/color] Paul reviewed his social media post and smiled. He just knew it was going to be a success. The Mulder Foundation had appreciated his additional support in the planning. It was amazing how many businesses were willing to donate their services to charity when asked by a celebrity. Paul had no trouble doing the asking. It was for his mother after all. Paul had managed to get the art museum to host the event, he had put up the event insurance. The caters, decor, event staff, and party supplies had all been donated. Paul had even gotten some advertising by doing some personal recording at local news stations talking about the event. [hr] [color=fff200]OfficeDrone#12:[/color] Wow! Thos tickets are pricey. [color=fff200]SuperfanAGR54:[/color] Yikes out of my price range. Nice that there are low income options to support too. I ordered my t-shirt! [color=fff200]DantheMan:[/color] Well not my bag of tea. No monkey suits for me please. [color=fff200]BatDave:[/color] Batman sends his approval. [color=fff200]Superfan2075:[/color] I wish he put as much effort into his racing. [color=fff200]DadBod89:[/color] It is nice to see him doing something for other people. [color=fff200]Hater101:[/color] That thing will only be attended by the wealthy. It is a way to look for new sponsors and build his personal brand. Hard pass. [color=fff200]Papabear34:[/color] Nice to see a young man give back. [color=fff200]Nana2050:[/color] I have bought my ticket! [color=fff200]GeorgeFly:[/color] Hmm I want to bid on some of the signed stuff. No idea if I will win though. That bike is sweet! [color=fff200]ValkyrieFan56:[/color] Oh the silent auction list is amazing! Too bad most of it is out of my price range. [color=fff200]Weedhead81:[/color] Hey Paul I don’t see any primo weed on the auction list. Dude what gives? [color=fff200]SexyM@m@5:[/color] I wonder if Dorian will be there? [color=fff200]Paulmulder4eva:[/color] I bought my shirt Paul! I would be happy to model it for you! [color=fff200]Britball12:[/color] Meh. I am with @DanTheMan. It is not my bag of tea. A night in a tuxedo or suit. That sounds more like torture. [color=fff200]!YouSlow!:[/color] Now if you were having this outside at a park with grilling at the race track and free rides, I would be there. This is not the typical race fan scene. [color=fff200]Bertha:[/color] No wonder he has been doing poorly. He has been spending all his time on this instead of practicing. [hider= Team Valkyrie Characters] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zrLx5XUgYiVm6KjTpFTWZtJvXc0MX77enkLzINHujKw/edit?gid=0#gid=0 [/hider]