Flounderings of a Predator(Motorsport Manager)

[Brian Swartz]

Naturally I'm doing the same challenge as NoSkillz, starting with Predator Racing Group. He did an excellent job of outline the crappy starting position, etc. so I won't redo that here. It took me the tutorial and two seasons to feel like I really have a handle on priorities and how everything works in the game. I was going to restart, but decided against it, even though I think I've managed to dig myself an even greater hole than the PRG starts with. Fits with the backstory, anyway.

Also, I've hired different staff and drivers, different teams have been promoted and relegated, so it's not an exact copy of the opposition he's going up against. The difference in approaches should also be interesting.

As is my wont with these kinds of things, I created myself in the game. That means I was 38 when the game started and a complete newcomer. The rest of the story I'll get to in the next post.

[Brian Swartz]

It's a good thing Chairman Darren Luff is a patient man. If he wasn't, I'd get run out of town after the meeting we just had -- or maybe nobody else would even take this crap job? Either way, there's a lot of work ahead. This misadventure began two years ago:

2016 Season Review

There wasn't a whole lot of fanfare when I arrived in Australia to take over as Principal for the Predator Racing Group, an outclassed startup in the European Racing Series. One of the main drivers, Ines Santa Ana, remarked thusly: "So you're the nobody that's taking over the team? Man, you must have pulled off one HELL of a job interview". The PRG is a tight-knit group, but they weren't real big of realistic expectations. The other main driver, William Evans averred that "I'm going to be working my socks off to prove to you that I'm a much better driver". I recall thinking that there aren't enough controlled substances invented yet to make me that dense. Evans sucked -- it was obvious Santa Ana was better, not that either were all that good. Top scout Aaron Burgess thought she had the potential to be one of the better ERS drivers though. So that was something.

In any case, the plan going in was sensible, but at the same time misguided. Developing the in-house talent was considered job #1. The only thing Predator wasn't last at in the ERS was HQ development(8th out of 10). The only thing that wasn't completely embarassing about the car was fuel efficiency, and that was still bad. You know the story. We didn't deserve to be here, and had to try to find a way to compete.

The debut wasn't super. Dembele retired with mechanical failure, which is the only reason we weren't dead last. 18th for Santa and 19th for Evans were bad enough. We'd get used to it though. Didn't hit it off too well with the media, who kept pressing me about our poor finishes. Chairmun Luff and William Evans didn't particularly care for my honesty in those matters either. Designer Charlotte Williams came up with some new parts, some of which were worse than what we already had. I didn't quite know that was possible. A couple races in though, we managed to improve our brake systems to 9th in the ERS.

Our 'fans' kept commenting on how we needed better drivers, and how Santa Ana even was the worst the sport's seen in decades. That was an exaggeration, but the point was obvious. Evans responded to these comments by saying in an interview that he was refocusing himself on the sport, getting rid of all distractions. Sounded good.

Sponsors came and went, new parts were designed, and the schedule kept on coming. We got better at improving the car setups ahead of each race, but it really didn't matter all that much. Only way we were going to finish not-last is if someone crashed or otherwhise wrecked their vehicle, or they were caught cheating. I had too much integrity(i.e., not enough funding) to do that myself, of course.

Then came Ardennes, at the midpoint of the season. After the opening laps, Santa Ana went head-to-head with the rest of the field and managed a solid midfield finish of 11th, the first time either driver had done better than 17th. For us, this was huge. Everybody spent a lot of time repairing that race, but we managed to keep it to a minimum. Evans was less thrilled with this result: "I can't stand it anymore. I hate driving for this team, boss." The feeling was quite mutual. Santa Ana wanted me to promise an investment in the Forecasting Centre, and as much as I wanted to keep her happy, I thought the Staff Centre is a better use of our money.

Soon afterwards, she got in a bar brawl over some guy, gets a black eye, and -2 to her focus for two weeks. Fortunately, Munich GP was still three weeks away. Then Evans started whining about not getting his share of the newer parts on his equal status contract, and some adjustments had to be made there. Much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. Equal status means equal status.

Munich wasn't impressive for us, but in the following race we got our first big break. Most of the field misjudged the weather and had to do some extra early pit stops due to rain. Santa Ana was able to ride this early advantage to a stunning eventual 5th-place finish, by far our best-ever result. Drama afterwards included infighting between Santa Ana and mechanic Tom Woodbridge, and me being offered a bribe to influence my vote in the GMA rules committee.

Next up in Tondela, Santa Ana ran her best race yet to finish 5th once again after penalties were assessed. This only upset Evans even more: he offered up a lame ultimatum, refusing to resign as long as Santa Ana is still a driver here. It wasn't a hard choice. He also had a fever, and while he got healthy he was demoted with reserve driver Katie Linares taking over. That naturally put him in an even better mood. I couldn't have cared less. For someone with a reputation for getting along with everyone, he sure was causing a ton of headaches. He's lucky I waited to decide what to do until the end of the year instead of just outright firing him on the spot.

Linares held the lead for a few laps in her first start which was downright impressive, and finished 17th which was equal to Evans' best result. 11th for Santa Ana, not as good as the last couple races but still solid. The finale was a torrential downpour, and Evans was back in action. Given his aversion to water, that might not have been a good thing. Nothing much mattered on this day though. Everything that was tried, failed, and we finished in the final two spots. The first season was over.

[Brian Swartz]

FINAL 2016 DRIVER STANDINGS

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 199
2. Andre Sabado(Firebird MRT) -- 159
3. Sergey Antonov(Vexela Motorsport) -- 155
4. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 150
4. Amanda Cavalcanti(Silva Racing) -- 150

Tight at the top, but Jha is head and shoulders above the rest of the field here.

At the bottom, we have a monopoly ...

18. Alex Rogers(Archer BMR) -- 83
19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 78
20. William Evans(Predator RAcing Group) -- 19
21. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- 6

Ouch. Ines moves down three spots after doing so well earlier; she had been up to 16th a race or two prior.

FINAL 2016 TEAM STANDINGS

1. Garuda Racing -- 343
2. Firebird MRT -- 280
3. Eastwood Motorsport -- 277
3. Silva Racing -- 277
5. Vexela Motorsport -- 273
6. Octane Racing -- 217
7. Dragon Race Team China -- 195
8. ZRT Autosport -- 191
9. Archer BMR -- 174
10. Predator Racing Group -- 103

More of the same here. Garuda leads the pack, then a four-way scrum behind them, another gap back to a few more teams, and then us 50 feet of crap behind the pack.

Among the best of the best(World Motorsport Championship), Holtz took first and Champman second for dominant team Steinmann Motorsport. Scuderia Rossini's Wexler and Saarinen took 3rd and 4th, followed by Panther Race Team and Kitano Sport with their drivers. Very well-established hierarchy there. In the mid-level Asia-Pacific Supercup, Almeida took top honors in a dominant showing for MacNeil Racing Team. Espirit GP had 2nd and 4th place with Larsen and Navarro for a strong second-place team season, and Boa Esperanca had 3rd and 5th with the Costas to rank next.

Hugo Cumberland of second-place Firebird MRT wins the ERS Manager of the Year award. Jonsdottir strangely gets driver of the year. Meanwhile, 6th-place finishing Jean-Francois Beauchamp surprises nobody by retiring at the age of 41. The question is, where does Garuda Racing go from here? The answer to that .. they'll have to replace both drivers, as Tanvir Jha, 39, also steps aside.

[NoSkillz]

Good start! I'll be reading...

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks! I'm sure you mean the setup in the thread, since on the track it was pretty ugly!

2017 Pre-Season

Prize Money: Our share of the prize money this year is handed out: 11.25 million. That actually almost covers the chairman's contributions. Almost.

European Racing Series Rule Changes

** Unlimited Pit Crews(was 6-man teams)
** Free Choice of Tyre Compounds(was pre-determined)
** Three Dry Weather Tyre Compounds(previously two)

Pit crews basically amounts to a modest increase in costs per race, and the ability to have both cars pit simultaneously(which I didn't realize for 2-plus seasons after the fact). The tyre compound changes give us a little more control and, in theory, a little more opportunity for strategic variance. I don't expect any of these to have a major impact unless we royally screw them up.

Promotion/Relegation

Every year the top team in the bottom two series' moves up, and the opposite also occurs; last-place finishers in the top two series' move down. At the top, MacNeil is switched with the Chariot Motor Group, while Garuda Racing is promoted ... that'll be even more fun for them with both main drivers retiring ... and Kruger Motorsport joins the ERS.

Chassis Design

The big expenditure, and one of the biggest choices of the off-season. We have 12.48 million, plus the 7 million from the money laid aside each race for this specifically. The minimal cost would be 3.2 million, which would still give us a slightly better base than we had this last year. At the other end, we could pay 16M for the best available suppliers, almost all of our current bankroll. How much do we invest in the chassis, and how much do we save for working on new/improved parts and infrastructure?

To make a long story boring, I ended up going medium across the board, for a total cost of 10.3M. Couldn't afford much more; we need to be able to invest the money elsewhere. Or at the time, I just thought we might need to. Didn't really know what all I was doing.

PERSONNEL ISSUES

Drivers

Ines Santa Ana -- She had a good second half, with three straight 8+ showings(5th, 5th, and 11th) along with a 7.4 average. She's moved up from being a subpar driver to marginally competitive now. With enough support, she could consistently run in the middle of the pack, and at 24 she's still going to get quite a bit better. Two years left on her contract, at $167k per race. She's definitely staying around.

William Evans -- He's 27, and not good enough to compete. He's not every going to be more than marginally so either, his attitude sucks, and he has flat-out refused to resign as long as Santa Ana's on the team. Still has a year left on his deal, much cheaper at $46k per race. Buyout is $229k, and we're definitely going to do that. It's definitely worth the money to get a second competitive driver, as long as the price is reasonable.

Katie Linares -- She's young(21), has a great attitude, focused and content. Unfortunately, she's roughly at Evans' skill level and isn't going to get much better. She's the kind of driver I'd love to keep around, but she just isn't good enough to compete. Her contract is up now, and it won't be renewed unfortunately.

So we need two new drivers first of all. The best of the ones we scouted this year(Rafael Rodrigues, Lisandro Cruz, and Sofi Sevilla) all landed jobs in the APS. They are all reserves up there, but still. We narrow it down to three choices:

** Lorenzo Mori(29, ITA) -- A very focused driver who excels in the turns, Mori is fairly weak in overtaking, downright bad at braking, but solid in other aspects. He's capable of being one of the better drivers in the ERC right away, but lacks confidence after a big crash in Rio earlier in his career. As a result, it's best that he stay away from there(no problem) and he's tentative when overtaking or braking. Mostly he just wants a long contract, and his asking price is at least $238K. Mori can still get somewhat better, and in a couple years could be dominating this level of competition in the right situation.

** Luca Gatto(34, ITA) -- Almost as good as Mori, Gatto is on the downside of his career. Consistent, flexible, good in the corners and in practice feedback, his greatest struggles by far come when overtaking a competitor. He has a bit of a lead foot though, using his fuel up more quickly than most drivers. He has a lower asking price of $208k, and similarly just wants a long deal.

** Miia Lahtinen(27, FIN) -- Lahtinen isn't nearly as good; she's similar to Santa Ana in overall ability, older and a little inferior actually right now, but at the same time with greater potential. Adaptability first, and secondly overtaking are her strengths, with weaknesses in breaking, cornering, and smoothness. Braking especially, as she tends to be overly cautious and slow down too early. One big bonus is that she has a special deal with his sponsors; they'll pay $281k per race that she is in, half that if she only goes out for practice. That could essentially make her free, or close to it ...

Her asking price is at least $48k, but she says what she makes is pretty important, so she really wants more than that. A long contract is also desired, but that's about it.

I don't want to give a declining guy like Gatto a long contract, but I definitely like the idea of putting Mori in a car, with Lahtinen as a reserve. She's offered a 3-year deal at $77k for that role; didn't want to insult her with a low offer. Mori also gets a 3-year offer at his minimum of $238k to spend his prime driving years as an equal-status performer for Predator.

If they sign, that's about $200k more per race than last year's drivers cost. That's a significant bite, but with improved results and Mori being a reasonably well-known and marketable face in the sport, we ought to be able to make some of that up in sponsorships -- especially if we run Lahtinen out there in practice.


Key Staff

By this we mean designer and mechanics.

** Lead Designer Charlotte Williams(AUS, 29) -- Two years left on the contract, $49k buyout, $10k per race. Umm, she sucks. There isn't a nicer way to put this. Williams designs the way Evan drives, which is why a couple of her parts last year were a step backwards. Suspension and engine work is ok, but gearbox is poor and brakes are horrific. She is improving, and could become decent eventually, but that'll be many years from now. Can we wait?

** Mechanic Tom Woodbridge(UK, 27) -- Fairly poor, but not terrible. $19k per race, $94k buyout with another three years on his deal. Fairly good at getting along with his drivers, and decent in the pits. Fixing parts, avoiding mistakes, performance, reliability ... he's bad at all of them. He could be a legitimately good mechanic down the road though.

** Oscar Deveritt(26) -- Poor, bordering on downright terrible in some ways. 2-year deal, $15k per race, $75k buyout. Ok in the pits and in improving part performance. Bad everywhere else.

Williams is cheap, but she's still got to go. Replacing Woodbrige isn't worth breaking in a new mechanic for Santa Ana, but Deveritt is both too bad to keep around and if we are letting Evans go anyway, there's no incentive for him to stay.

There's a lot of designers out there. One excellent one, Paul Trenoweth from right here in Australia, told us not to call him back. He knows he's good enough that he can get a job in one of the higher-level championships. The best that are willing to work for us want salaries that are ten times what we are paying now: 130k or more per race. That we can't afford.

After sorting through most of the options, I really like 29-year-old Swede Isai Nolde. He's pretty much decent across the board, making him an above-average designer. Wants a 2-year deal, which works for me, making at least $42k. The thing with pretty much all of the quality designers is they want a signing on fee and performance bonuses, so they get quite expensive. Bonuses seem particularly important to Nolde. I offer $50k per race for 2 years, a one-time signing fee of $270k, and an additional $45k any time we make it onto the podium(top 3) in a race. We'll have to see what he thinks of that.

Then finally, we need another top mechanic. Once again the best ones wouldn't spit on even a good ERS team if our hair were on fire. I decide it makes sense to look for one matching Mori's ability, which is about where Nolde comes in anyway and similar to the fact that Woodbridge is a good match for Ines Santa Ana. Alyx Grey(30, United States) is in that ballpark and has off the charts potential. Not the best at pit stops or fixing parts, but she's solid at avoiding major mistakes in the pits and improving part reliability, while quite good at working with the drivers and getting parts to their peak performance quickly. She'd be able to get off to a relatively fast start with Mori most likely. Wants at least $26k per race, reasonable contract demands across the board, and is likewise preferably looking for a 2-year deal. That works for me. I offer her $32k per race, $56k to sign, and $36k any time she gets him in the Top 5. We'll see what she thinks of that.

Hires

Things ... didn't work out how I wanted. Part of this was just wading into how contract negotiations worked. Here are the highlights(lowlights?) of how things progressed.

** December 18 -- A journalist(Michelle DuPont) threatens us with negative press. I tell her to take a long walk off a short pier. I don't react well to threats, but her writing, describing our approach as backward-thinking, does hurt us with sponsors. Meanwhile, Mori comes back and is insulted by our offer. Mechanic Alyx Grey has the same reaction. This becomes a pattern.

** December 25 -- Grey's official notice of rejection is my present. Well, one of them. Miia Lahtinen signs as our new reserve driver, while Linares has this to say:

"I can't believe you're firing me! This is insane!

I thought we were going to try to win things together. Now I knokw that was all a lie. Screw you, Bryan. Screw you."

Very subtle and reserved, I thought. I mean, your contract is up. Seriously. The media reports that we are taking a gamble on an untested rookie. Well, they aren't wrong. Next try at a mechanic is Isabel Bishop(26, IRE). I've learned a bit here so I try to bribe her with higher signing fees and the like to accept a lower wage.

** December 26 -- Mori tells us it's still not enough, and says we've got one last chance. $333k per race was the last offer, and I don't think I can afford any more, cutting off negotiations. Back to the driver pool ... there's not much out there right now. Oscar Diaz is solid, but he's definitely got some issues. 32 and at his peak, and he wants a long contract. I'm not willing to take him on for more than two years. At that point, I want the option to upgrade. He doesn't have any absurd demands ... I try $218k per race, $210k for signing just to sweeten the pot.

** Dec. 28 -- We also fail to come to terms with Designer Isai Nolde. Again reaching too high here I fear. Russian Roman Vasilev looks ok. Not better, but we can't afford better. Brakes are his only major weakness. $60k per race, $225k to sign, $42k for a Top-5 finish.

** Jan. 3 -- Isabel Bishop wants more money per race. Move up from $31k to $39k. Don't really want to go higher than that.

** Jan. 4 -- Vasilev likes the contract length and bonus, but won't even consider designing for 60k a race. I go up to 73k, and $315k to sign.

** Jan. 5 -- Oscar Diaz signs! I inform Evans that his services will no longer be required. Both sides should be pleased at this development. Instead ..

'what are you thinking? This is ridiculous. ... you just throw me away like garbage'

Well, you won't work with the other(far better) driver and kept threatening to leave all of last season. Don't really know what else you expect, buddy. The media is at least neutral on the Diaz signing.

* Jan. 10th -- Vasiliev wants more money, and now it's an ultimatum. So does Bishop. Turns out I'm going to have pay more than I wanted to for quality. To heck with it. I up both offers.

** Jan. 17th -- Bishop turns us down anyway. Sigh. Up next is Ellen McBride from the UK, similar below-average ability to many of those in the ERS and fairly well-rounded. She's a LOT cheaper ... but really that's what we need.

** Jan. 19th -- Vasiliev sends his rejections. Basically he wanted six figures per race or he wasn't signing. I'm not comfortable jacking our budget up through the roof like that ... and he's only a little better than designers making less than 40k in this division. Katie Paulson(42) from the UK looks like a perfect solution ... if she can be convinced. She's solid or better everwhere except with the wings ... which are spec parts in the ERS anyway. We try out $69k per race, throw $263k at her to sign, and $48k for podium finish.

** Jan. 24th -- A bit of a different kind of news, as Miia Lahtinen volunteers at a homeless shelter in central London. She said that 'social issues are always on my mind', and 'I just want to support them, and make sure that their good work doesn't go unnoticed'.

Way to go. Now get back in the car. In all seriousness, the press from this improves her marketability(+15 for 20 weeks).

** Jan. 25th -- Ellen McBride wants more money. Shocking. Not a lot more though. I hope. This is the last chance with her.

** Jan. 26th -- Last chance with Paulson as well.

** Jan. 30th -- McBride signs! Finally we have an improved mechanic. 27k per race, 21k to sign, 3 years, 12k if we get a top 5 finish. She's similar in quality to Woodbridge, so we have two serviceable, if not better, minds in there.

** Jan. 31st -- Paulson signs, and we have our new designer!! 3 years, a pretty steep 81k per race, $263k(ouch) for signing, and $48k for any podium finish we get. The media reports that Charlotte Williams is 'absolutely gutted' at being forced out.

Ok, so the new team is in place. Pretty much we've got a below-average group across the board now, nobody horrible anymore, and Diaz is a little better than that as a legitimately capable professional driver. In other words, the personnel around here is only a fraction as inadequate as they were last year ... but still inadequate, make no mistake.

Over in the financial department, all of this leaves us with $8.53M remaining, and an estimated per-race profit on $966k with our current sponsors.

** Feb. 12th -- Designer Katie Paulson mentions that the engineers are concerned that we won't be able to improve our new chassis enough throughout the season. For $1.5M to the engine contractor, things could become a little more flexible. I don't think we can afford that expense, as compared to what parts we will want to build, and investing in our HQ.

** Feb. 13th -- The Staff Centre is completed! It's a tough call and major expense, but I decide to invest almost all of our remaining cash into upgrading the factory. Getting all of the various parts in top condition will be greatly hastened by doubling our basic staff there from 10-20, and tripling the number of parts we can work on simultaneously. We're down to $534K now. It'll take a few months, and the improved factory won't be ready for operations until a few races into the year. It should still pay dividends in the back half though.

** Feb. 19th -- Eastwood Motorsport opens a new Test Track; they aren't resting on their laurels either. Meanwhile it's time for this year's Livery, or car appearance design.

** March 5th -- Preparations are over; the new chassis is ready., It's time for Pre-Season Testing, our first look at how competitive we might ... or might not ... be this year.

Results:

1. E. Jonsdottir(Octane Racing) -- 1:58.485
2. L. Gatto(Kruger Motorsport) -- 1:58.509
3. M. Rosentraetter(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 1:58.795
4. M. Vaananen(Vexela Motorsport) -- 1:59.285
5. L. Marchetta(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 1:59.466

Jonsdottir certainly looks comfortable with her new team, and ERS newcomers Gatto and Rosentraetter did very well also. Eastwood Motorsport is probably the happiest team, as they have replaced both of their main drivers and did just fine with it.

9. O. Diaz(Predator Racing Group) -- 1:59.993

Mid-table and a second and a half off the pace? I'll take that.

18. I. Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 2:03.973

Still well slower than most of the field, but not last. A third of the cars had significant problems, most of them with the gearbox. We were not among them.

Still, looking at the cars, neither driver is thrilled. They know what everyone else knows: we still have the worst, in every aspect, racecars in the European Racing Series. While the driver situation is much improved, we still have the weakest group there as well. Our HQ ranks 7th, up from 8th last year, Staff is 8th, up from 10th, and Sponsors are also 8th. Overall, we rank 7th. So that's something.

Marketability is 19.7%, up from 16.3% at this point a year ago. Chairman Darren Luff has the same question about our expectations as a year ago; he gets the same answer. Another 300k per race is available if we can commit to finishing 8th or better. When we have the worst cars in the circuit, driven by the worst drivers, albeit with a more competitive support system, and 'last by less', our goal here is simply be closer to the teams ahead of us. So 10th it is.

There's no money for any new parts until we get through the first race, thanks to the factory expenditure. Right now, we'll just be putting efforts toward improving what we have. There are always reliability issues at the start of a season, but some of the parts we are starting with are wildly divergent in capability also. The suspensions are both basically passable, but that's the only component that's close. Diaz was upset at getting the shaft, but he was given a good gearbox which satisfied him. The other one that Santa Ana will make do with is somewhat rubbish. With the engine, she's got a solid one and his is fairly poor. Diaz also has bad brakes, the worst of any part, while Ines will have a set that is merely well below par. Put it all together, and out of the eight we have two, maybe three at a push on one of the suspensions, parts that are of acceptable quality. There's work to do.

[Brian Swartz]

I've decided to reboot this after the latest patch. The AI has been improved enough that it's a much different experience now. After several seasons I had Predator up to the point where they were nearly a contender, but there was always at least one team enough better that I couldn't beat them. I think the biggest changes are the amount of free positions I was used to getting from rules violations demotions, fuel shortages, and mechanical failures in the other cars. They are more intelligent and risk-averse now.

A second issue I've been having, which hopefully I'll be disciplined enough to overcome, is this: this game is too stinking addictive!! I'll sit down to organize my notes and do an update, then want to check something in the game. Next thing I know it's 3 races later and half the stuff I planned to do today I don't have time for anymore.

Another note here: I like reporting things in 'real-world' terms. I.e. instead of 2.5 stars or 3 stars, a descriptive word will suffice. Here's how I'll translate that:

** 5 stars -- World-Class
** 4.5 stars -- Elite
** 4 stars -- Excellent
** 3.5 stars -- Good
** 3 stars -- Above-Average
** 2.5 stars -- Average
** 2 stars -- Below-Average
** 1.5 stars -- Poor
** 1 star -- Terrible
** 0.5 stars -- Worthless

That way when I throw around these words, you'll know what I mean in terms of the game, esp. for those of you who play. For the attributes, I'll use Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor for the color-coded indicators there.

[Brian Swartz]

2016: The Trek of Drek Begins

As much for my own benefit as anything, I put this together to reset the starting situation.

GMA Competitive Structure

GMA stands for Global Motorsports Association, the governing body of the professional racing circuit. The humorously-named Ernie Heckelrock is the Chairman, and arbitrates all disputes. There are three tiers, each consisting of 10 teams

** World Motorsport Championship(WMC). The best of the best compete over 16 races here. Steinmann Motorsport, Panther Race Team, and Scuderia Rossini are a cut above the rest. The best drivers in the world typically vie for a place with them. I can't really tell you who those best drivers are, because we haven't scouted them yet. That'll happen eventually, and while I don't keep super-close track of the higher-level championships due to constantly shifting contracts, I do intend to keep tabs on who the best of the best is annually. The WMC has a $500M annual prize fund, and 425M televised audience. They have long practice, qualifying, and racing sessions, and award points to the Top 10 finishers in each race. Refuelling is not permitted, fairly high-performance tires are used, and they have high merit payments; prize money is mostly distributed to the teams at the top of the standings. There are no limitations on part developments here.

** Asia-Pacific Supercup(APS). The middle tier, or 'semipro' level if you will. $250M prize fund and 100M TV audience here for a 12-event season. Those not quite good enough for the WMC, but better than the also-rans below. The APS has medium-length practice, race, and qualifying for a balanced approach. One of the main distinctives here is they only award points to the Top 6, making it difficult to consistently score for many teams. Bonus points are allotted for the pole position in qualifying and the fastest lap during a race. There are high merit payments for prize money here as well. Fairly low-performance tires are used, and the number of tires are limited. Fuel tanks are limited to 80% of the race distance, requiring at least one stop per race -- pit speeds are at 60mph which makes things a little quicker. Most parts can be developed, but the engines are standardized.

** European Racing Series(ERS). This is the bottom tier, where we start. Things are quite a bit different down here. The prize fund is halved again to $125M, and 40M is the TV audience size. The calendar also shrinks to 10 events. There is no qualifying at all in this championship; starting positions are determined by reversing the current standings. All 20 drivers in each race earn points in the standings, making it easier for weaker teams to compete. Bonus points for the fastest lap are here as well. Practice and race lengths are shorter, resulting in quick, chaotic conditions. Fuel tanks last only 40% of a race, mandating at least two stops under a low 40mph speed. Merit payments are standard, with the top teams getting only a slightly higher payout. Tires are generally low-performance, and a large number are prepared for each race but the types are pre-determined. Both Front Wings and Rear Wings are standardized, but other parts are developed by each team.


European Racing Series Teams

** Eastwood Motorsport(Poor). They're worth $113M with a fan base of 400k, based in the UK with 46 employees. They're among the leaders in the series in everything except for sponsorship, and should be counted among the top contenders. Sergio Arbeloa and Edda Jonsdottir are their drivers.

** Garuda Racing(Poor). 91M value, 61k fanbase, HQ in India also with 46 on staff. Garuda has the best car, drivers, and headquarters in the ERS making them the favorites for promotion this year. 2nd to Eastwood in staff, and they need better sponsors. Jean-Francois Beauchamp and Tanvir Jha are their main drivers. Another advantage Garuda has right now is being head-and-shoulders above the rest of the championship in terms of marketability.

** Octane Racing(Terrible to Poor). 35M value, 200k fanbase, Canadian HQ(20 employees). They've got a decent car and above-average drivers, but the headquarters support sucks and the staff there is fairly low-quality(8th). Sponsorship is better only than ours. Luigi Marchetta and Claudia Dreyfuss are their drivers.

** Vexala Motorsport(Terrible to Poor). 94M value, 800k fanbase, Finland HQ(20). Above-average car and drivers(5th in each), decent staff(7th), and right now the best sponsorship deals, but their headquarters sucks. That'll make it hard for Vexala to finish in the top half. Drivers Sergey Antonov and Merja Vanaanen are both in their prime.

** Firebird MRT(Terrible to Poor). 157M value, 900k fanbase, Russia HQ(37). They have an upgraded design centre, but not factory. An excellent car(3rd), above-average staff, drivers, HQ, and sponsors are pretty much middle of the road. Andre Sabado and Jean-Pierre Gerard are their drivers. Firebird MRT figures to be one of the better teams, but doesn't look like they'll be able to contend for the title. Low marketability right now figures to be a problem.

** Silva Racing(Terrible to Poor). 39M value, 900k fanbase, based in Brazil with 30 employees. They've got an upgraded factory. 4th in car and staff which are their strong points, average driver and HQ is just under that, pretty weak sponsors. Silva's a middle-of-the pack team right now. A pair of young drivers for them, Eduardo Melo and Amanda Cavalcanti.

** Dragon Race Team China(Terrible to Poor). 174M value, 800k fanbase, China HQ(44). Upgraded factory and design centre. Car is below-average as are the drivers(9th, though not nearly as bad as ours). Good HQ and sponsors, above-average staff, and second only to Garuda in marketability. Dragon has a lot going for them, but they need to improve their car and get better drivers in it to win. Bao Tang and teenager Nick Chu drive for them.

** Predator Racing Group(Worthless to Terrible). Here we are. 77M value, 700k fan base, Australian HQ(20). Everything's totally barebones. We're quite literally last across the board, with a couple of exceptions. Value and fan base aren't that bad(but as far as I know those have no impact and don't change). Marketability is merely bad, but actually a hair better than Firebird's. Either way, as things stand there's no question we're the worst overall by far. I'll get to our drivers later on.

** ZRT Autosport(Terrible to Poor). 13M value, 200k fan base. Based in the United States, with the minimum of 20 employees. If you looking for competition for Predator, this is the best choice. Nobody likes ZRT, for whatever reason. Their car sucks; it's the only one nearly as bad as ours. They've got the second-best drivers in the ERS which will help keep them afloat, and good sponsors as well. HQ and staff suck though. Teenager Sergio Valdes and veteran Aurele Dembele are the drivers.

** Archer BMR(Terrible to Poor). 82M value, 400k fan base. Archer is another UK-based team. They have an upgraded factory and 33 employees. Their car is subpar(8th), but they are close to average in all other aspects. Up-and-coming Mustafa El Sadat and aging Alex Rogers are their main drivers. The best thing Archer has going for them is pretty good marketability, but they are still only a middling team at best.

[Brian Swartz]

Car

** Overall: 10th. It totally sucks. ZRT Autosport's is 2nd-worst, and about three times better.
** Engine: 10th(Performance rated at 18)
** Gearbox: 10th, though it appears to be just a hair better relative to the rest of the ERS. Rated 41
** Brakes: 10th, 35
** Front Wing: SPEC
** Suspension: 10th, 34
** Rear Wing: SPEC

** Tire Wear -- Worthless/Terrible
** Tire Heating -- Worthless
** Fuel Efficiency -- Poor
** Improvability -- Terrible

This is a complete disaster, naturally. Worst at everything across the board. It's also worth noting that the performance ratings above are the maximum the parts can achieve; they need considerable work in the factory before they will reach that level. More in some cases than others.

Headquarters

We have a basic Factory and Design Centre, leaving our HQ with an overall rating of Worthless. You literally can't get any worse than that. The fact that we aren't rated last in everything simply means that others have just as bad a situation as we do. There are 20 employees(not counting myself) -- 10 factory workers and 10 administrative staff to cover the two buildings. This also means we have minimal expenses here: just $400k per year to keep our basic operations running and pay the help.

Unfortunately there's just no getting around that whole minimum wage ...

** Overall(Worthless): 8th
** Design: 7th
** Factory: 8th
** Performance: 7th
** Staff: 7th
** Staff & Brand: 7th

Drivers

** Ines Santa Ana(23, 3 years, $167k per race, no bonuses) -- Ines is fair at everything, except for cornering which is her main flaw. She gets intimidated by the pressure of one-on-one duels with other drivers, and doesn't perform well in those situations. On the plus side, she gets along well with the mechanics who see her as being very down-to-earth, improving those relationships. Overall, Ines is below-average but getting better, with the potential to be an above-average driver. Hates the press though, and as a result there's little about her for the sponsors to market. Santa Ana was just recently hired, and makes her debut this year.

** William Evans(27, 2 years, $46k) -- William is a diasaster everywhere but in the corners. He'd have to improve to become terrible, and really has no business being a professional driver. He particularly stinks in wet weather and at overtaking other drivers. He gets along well with the whole team, including the chairman. That's not much to hang your hat on though, even with being cheap added in. He can still improve, but not to anything close to even Ines' current level. Evans is more palatable to sponsors than Santa Ana, but not by that much. He's in his 9th year with Predator, and in 80 races to date he has yet to find the podium. Not exactly shocking.

Santa Ana and Evans are on equal-status contracts, meaning they have equal rights to new parts and support.

** Katie Linares(20, 1 year, $44k) -- Katie is very similar to Evans in ability, possessing exactly one decent skill; she's got reasonable fitness, allowing her not to fade too much late in races. Everything else is pretty much terrible. She's also happy where she is, not a complainer and beyond reasonable in her contract demands. Like the others, she doesn't have the charisma to really sell PRG in the public eye. Linares is another who just joined the team.

The best thing that can be said about this group is they are cheap. Santa Ana is the only one worth keeping on any respectable team; but that's not really us, is it?

Staff

** Lead Designer Charlotte Williams(28, 3 years, $10k) -- Charlotte is terrible. She's ok with suspensions, but knows next to nothing about brakes and very little about other things. None of her 'specialized expertise' is that great either; she's good with softer tires, but we can't use those all the time. This is her 10th year with Predator, which frankly says a lot about previous hiring decisions. Williams has the potential to be average ... at some point.

** Race Mechanic Tom Woodbridge(26, 4 years, $19k) -- Tom is a poor mechanic with the ability to become good someday. In other words, he's by far the best we have. He's good at managing relationships with drivers, decent at getting them out of the pits in a timely fashion, and sucks at everything else. This is Woodbridge's 6th year at Predator. His best asset is being good with engines, allowing us to push harder without having the car fall apart during races.

** Race Mechanic Oscar Deveritt(25, 3 years, $15k) -- Oscar is terrible, but on his way to merely being below-average. His decent abilities are in avoiding pit-stop screwups and improving part performance in-between races. It's been enough to keep him around for four years; this will be his 5th. Oscar is best at setting up the car for qualifying -- which would be useful if that was even a thing at this level. After working with a driver long enough he also can do risky fast pit stops without as much chance of a screwup, which will at least be a useful ability eventually.

Scouting

Aaron Burgess is our chief scout. Chairman Darren Luff is responsible for hiring him, so really all I can do is give him work. His job is to stand there and look intelligent, in between scouting any drivers I give him. For now, we'll focus on the lower-paid ones in the ERS -- maybe we can steal one of them down the road. At the moment, we can give him three to investigate at any given time.

Finances

$250k is our meager balance right now. Here's how the balance sheet looks on a per-race basis:

** Next Year's Chassis: $500k
** Driver Wages: $257k
** Race Mechanics: $37k
** Designer: $10k
** HQ Upkeep & Staff: $40k
** Travel Costs: $70k -- this includes tires and fuel as well
** Chairman Investment: $1.55M

Without any sponsorship deals, this gives us a profit of $638k per race.

Sponsors

Right now we only have two of six spots signed:

** Rogerson Ales -- 2 races left on this one, which gives us a $200k bonus if we finish 16th or better
** Carne Blanco -- 10-race deal, so this will last the rest of the year. A flat $200k per race.

We're going to see what offers come in before filling out the rest of the sponsor lineup.

[Brian Swartz]

Priorities

In the long run, improving the abysmal state of the cars is our top priority. We also want to upgrade the HQ, but we need to be careful about that; everything we build there costs money to maintain. Of course we need better drivers and mechanics to be competitive ... but there's no point in spending a bunch of money for better help right now. Gotta get them a car worth driving first.

Personnel can be replaced immediately if we have the money. HQ improvements take some time to build, but are mostly about the money to build them. Improving our parts for the cars is the most time-consuming element of them all by far. It's a project measured in years, so the one thing that is most tempting to splurge on is getting a better designer immediately. However that's a bit of a catch-22. I could easily end up spending 3 million or more per year for a top-notch(by our standards) designer. This would ultimately be counter-productive, because we wouldn't be able to fund a full schedule of new designs. For the time being then, we'll stand pat.

** March 1 -- First order of business was to sign a couple of sponsorship deals to get some money going.

** Wonderluck(4 races) -- $100k now, $650k for a 2nd-place finish or better. That's not happening, but we'll take the boost to our balance now.

** Wan Chai Industries(8 races) -- $750k up front, $450k per for 9th or better. Still quite unlikely for us to achieve, but that's a nice chunk of change for signing the contract.

We still have two open spots without offers, but now $1.1M in the bank. That's not enough to work on the engines, which need the most help. Looks like the best ideas we have are in regards to the suspension though. We'll focus our cash there early on. It'll take a few rounds of development to max. out: $750k will get the first one going, taking us down to $350k left. Engine, Gearbox, and Brakes are the priorities after that, in that order. Usable concepts for improving brake performance just seem to be in pretty short supply right now.

The factory staff will get to work on reliability, with our first race just two over two weeks away.

** March 2 -- Santa Ana has been reported as a 'style icon' for fashion designer La Roka. I find this amusing, but it will improve her profile with the sponsors for a while.

** March 7 -- Interview with XBC Sport. Seems I was a bit too candid for the chairman's liking, but there's no hiding how much we suck right now. It would be silly to pretend otherwhise.

** March 10 -- Suspension design finished. We've received an offer from Rogerson Ales to double up and take one of the fixed spots as well: $500k up front for an 8-race deal. We might get competing offers if we held out a little longer for other possibilities, but we need money now, not later. I sign the deal, which gives us just enough to fund another round of suspension work. After this, which costs $850k, we are literally broke -- not a cent in the bank.

** March 17 -- Time for the first race at Black Sea. Sponsor update: we still have no suitors for our final fixed spot, but we currently rank 5th, just a hair below-average. That's a lot better than we are doing elsewhere. Projected profits are $838k. We'll hope to add a $200k sponsor bonus from Rogerson Ales to that, for which we'll need to finish 16th. Not a high bar, but we're projected to have the last two spots so it would still be a surprise.

[Brian Swartz]

Black Sea Practice

45 laps here, this track is murder on tires but fairly easy on the fuel. Forecast calls for sunny conditions in the upper 50s. Ines Santa Ana and Katie Linares will be our practice drivers; Linares is better on the feedback front than Evans is. We did manage practice results slightly better than that; Santa Ana was 13th(2.97s behind) and Linares 20th(4.39s). Tanvir Jha had the fastest time of 1:19.476.

Race Day: March 20

Partly cloudy and 55, with those conditions expected to roughly hold. Good weather for supersofts, though they'll still burn up pretty quickly on this track. #1 was looking passable but still in need of work, particularly on the gear ratios. A little more stiffness in the corners and somewhat more acceleration looked like they would help. #2 looked good, and no changes would be made there.

William Evans starts on the pole, with Ines Santa Ana 12th(row 6). Santa Ana will be more aggressive due to the abilities of her mechanic(Tom Woodbridge) to compensate for that. Evans will be looking for a steady, don't-fall-apart approach most of the way. He held the lead for a couple of turns, then Jha got by. By the final turn he was down to 6th already, and Santa Ana got into a collision with one of the other drivers. Not exactly what I was looking for here. Andre Sabado is given a penalty for causing the contact at least. After three, Evans was in 9th and still having other cars get by, but only gradually ... he's holding up a good deal of the field successfully. Santa Ana is 19th, ahead of Sabado but 36s behind the rest. Long day ahead for her.

** Lap 8 -- 15th and 19th now. The supersofts are just getting torn up ... I think we're better off on regular softs here, the other option. Evans comes in for new tires as the last opponents go by. He's out in 19th, behind Santa Ana and immediately lapped by Tanvir Jha. Good times.

** Lap 11 -- Sabado goes by Evans, who sinks to last place. Got a feeling he should make himself comfortable there.

** Lap 13 -- Santa Ana comes in, and will change to softs as well. Should be able to make it on this stop and one more. Out in last, about six seconds behind Evans.

** Lap 16 -- Santa Ana gets by Evans again.

There honestly wasn't a whole lot to say about the rest of the race for us. It's clear that we are bad enough that there's no way to be competitive. Best we can do is try to maximize what we have, which means limiting the number of times we get lapped.

Race Results

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 62:07.171
2. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- +63.036
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +1 LAP

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +4 LAPS
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +4 LAPS

A few notes from this disaster.

** Not looking good for Eastwood to be a real challenger for Garuda Racing. Jha was light-years ahead of the field here.

** Both drivers required a gearbox repair during the race. Santa Ana's brakes also needed to be fixed, while Evans were on life support by the end of things.

** Clearly we are ever bit as bad as was feared. We won't be measuring success by our final positioning, which will probably be the same for a while, but by a few other, less ambitious measures.

For example, Santa Ana was a full lap behind Andre Sabado, who finished 18th; Evans was another 78 seconds back. In terms of fastest laps, the best were just under 1:20, but some of the other drivers were in the high 1:23 range, with Alex Rogers at 1:24.075 the slowest of our competition. Ines Santa Ana's best was 1:24.278, so with a little more consistency and not running into Sabado, she might have been able to compete: Rogers finished 15th. Evans' best was a little over three seconds slower, so he's just hopelessly out of the picture here. Santa Ana was 81 seconds behind Tang and Sabado, the closest competition, with Marchetta a couple ticks ahead of them. That's the kind of margin we'll need to work on closing before we can be remotely competitive with even the worst of the other teams.

Definitely a lot of work to do. The team standings have Garuda Racing naturally at the top with 41 points, Eastwood Motorsport next with 34, and then Vexala Motorsport at 27. With the minimum of 3, we're already 12 behind 9th-place Archer BMR.

[Brian Swartz]

Munich: Inter-Race Activies

** March 21st -- Second suspension finished. The next one will require $750k, and essentially eat up all our income from the race. Not quite all, but we're down to just $88k remaining. Munich is our next race in a little over three weeks, and continuing to work on reliability for that, esp. gearbox and suspensions, is the factory priority.

** March 30th -- Third suspension finished. Charlotte Williams has now seen enough to start working on the best parts we can make this year, so we'll need two more: one for each car. They'll cost a full million each, which we don't have, and take two weeks each for assembly and testing at the design centre. We do have one sponsor offer that's come in for the final unfilled contract there though; it's from Boa Vista, 6 races for a lump sum of ... $1M exactly. We sign the deal and begin development.

Each suspension will need a lot of work on reliability before they can be used. Eventually though, the performance rating is expected to be 144, more than quadruple what we can get from our current ones. That's what I call a quality investment.

** April 13th -- First of our 'max' suspensions finished. There's no money to start the next one just yet. We won't be quite there for a while yet, unless we hit the sponsor bonus in Munich, which seems ... unlikely. Getting it up to the same standard as our other parts in terms of reliability is our goal right now, and all of the factory staff will work on that with Deveritt until we get there.

Race Preview -- April 14

We're not looking as hot in the sponsor category now. Only somewhat below average, but just 9th with only ... of all teams ... Eastwood Motorsport behind us. Clearly the others 1have been signing new deals as well. The weather forecast calls for mid-50s again. Lap counts a bit lower in Munich(43 compared to 45 for the Black Sea), but more distinctively it's very easy on fuel and tires. One thing it's not easy on is the cornering, a lot of medium and slow-paced turns there. We're projected to finish 19th and 20th again, naturally.

Practice -- April 15

A bit of a surprise as Jha finished only 3rd in practice. His Canadian teammate, Jean-Francois Beauchamp, was best with a time of 1:35.085. Santa Ana finished 5th(2.82s back) with Linares last again(4.29s). Very similar margins to what we had last week, and similarly fair in terms of comfort level with the track.

Race Day -- April 17

It was supposed to be cloudy today ... and it was. Heavy rain as well, which wasn't in the forecast. Both cars looked good after practice, with no need for changes. Both drivers wanted to go out on wets, but it wasn't that wet out there yet -- I'll take inters.

Due to the results in Black Sea, we start with both front row positions. Hopefully we can hold that for a while. Everyone else was on wets, and after the first couple of turns we pulled away, Evans first with Santa Ana right behind. After the first lap, I order him to let her through. Meanwhile, Dembele and El Sadat give us the first collision of the day. By the end of the second lap, there was enough water out there that the drivers wanted wet tires ... but the forecast showed it would stop in a couple of laps. Not worth coming in for IMO. The other teams will have the advantadge now though ...

Lap 3 -- Andre Sabado charged past both cars easily, dropping us to 2nd and 3rd.

Lap 5 -- Almost everyone goes by, but the rain stops and the water starts to dry. Slowly, as we're still in the mid-50s.

Lap 7 -- Everybody comes in for inters. Santa Ana gets back up all the way to 2nd, with Evans 12th. I think we did ok with that strategy, but it could have gone either way.

Lap 10 -- Sabado leads by almost 30 seconds already. Ines needs to come in for new tires, and the rain's about to start up again so we'll stay on intermediates. Staying in 2nd for the first quarter of the race is a nice achievement for her though.

Lap 14 -- The rain's been back for a couple of laps, and Evans has stopped. He's out over a half-minute behind the field, while Santa Ana is in 17th.

Lap 21 -- Up to 8th after some others have stopped, Santa Ana is run into by Arbeloa trying to pass on the final turn. Chances of not finishing behind everyone are in real trouble now as she has a lap to go damaged before getting repairs to the rear wing. The rain stops, but there's still a moderate amount of water out there. Looks like it's gone for good now though.

Lap 23 -- Out a half-minute behind everyone except Evans, who is another 15 behind. Lovely. Sabado still leads, with Antonov and Gerard both about 30 seconds back.

Lap 28 -- Everyone has come in for dry tires now. We grab mediums even though at 57 it's really too cool for them; they'll be durable enough to allow us to finish the race without stopping again. 19th and 20th still; Santa Ana's a half-minute back of the field, with another 30 seconds back to Evans. Most of the other cars grab soft tires so they'll pull away more, but almost certainly have to stop one more time also.

Lap 38 -- Six to go, and Evans is having issues with his brakes. Still going to to try to finish on them though.

Lap 41 -- Sabado has to pit for repairs, and Sergey Antonov takes the lead. Three laps from winning ... meanwhile it looks like the others are simply going to finish out by running cautiously on their soft tires. We could have done that, but I don't think it would have helped much as we've been able to ride them harder by using mediums.

Race Results

1. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 75:24.734
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 8.891
3. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- +13.438

Antonov gets the win at the end, while Jha moves up through the field but not fast enough.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS

Post-Mortem

2 laps down is a lot better than four, and we made it through with no repairs(barely), other than the one to Santa Ana's wing after the collision. In terms of the fastest lap, Ines had a 1:41.214, about three-quarters of a seconds slower than Sergio Valdes, the next-slowest. Evans was another four seconds worse. It was almost exactly a minute between Santa Ana and Aurelie Dembele in 18th; 20 seconds closer than the last race.

Definitely better, but still a very, very long way to go.

Driver Standings(2 out of 10 events)

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 40
2. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 37
3. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 35
4. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 34
5. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 31
5. Jean-Pierre Gerard(Firebird MRT) -- 31

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 4
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 2

Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 74
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 66
3. Vexala Motorsport -- 57

10. Predator Racing Group -- 6

[Brian Swartz]

Milan: Pre-Race Activities

** April 18 -- We're at $926k now, just shy of the million we need to build our final suspension. There's a sponsor slot that just opened up as one of our deal with Rogerson Ales expired after Munich: hopefully we can get a new one for that spot soon to give us the money we need.

** April 28 -- Got the deal we wanted now. Russ Jet Airways, a 10-race deal for $1M up front, $75k for 16th or better finish. I'd like a better bonus payment, but we're not going to be hitting that mark anytime soon it doesn't appear anyway. The contract is signed, and the suspension work begins.

** May 4 -- The first GMA vote of the year is on the matter of adding an event in Doha. I'm in favor of this but abstain, preferring to use my influence on some later votes. In a bit of a surprise, the addition is approved narrowly, 5-4! More races mean more opportunities to earn money, and makes the ERS more competitive with the higher tiers. Good for everyone.

Milan Preview

Our new suspension is finished. We'll only be able to use the one, which goes on Ines's car, and William is not pleased. He'll get his probably for the next race, but until we do the work to get it reliable, it would be useless to him. Rain is expected for practice, but cloudy and upper 60s for the race itself. A fair amount of fuel use here, but fairly kind on the tires. This is the fastest, quickest race on the circuit, 31 laps of 4 miles each. With engines and brakes the most vital here, the new suspension won't make all that much difference here anyway.

Practice

Beauchamp won the practice session again, 1:17.631 his time. It rained most of the time, with a brief interlude in the middle. Santa Ana was 16th, 4.19s behind; Linares didn't finish last for the first time, 5 seconds back on the nose. Still, it was our largest margins so far which is not encouraging. Once again fair preparation, and barely that.

Milan: Race Day

Sunny and 68 to start. Naturally we drew the front row spots again; at least we'll have that advantage until we improve. A couple small changes to #1, #2 looks ready to go. Santa Ana dropped back to 3rd behind Dembele immediately, and by the end of the first lap we were down to 3rd and 4th. 7th and 8th a lap later, as we just didn't have the speed to hold them off on a wide-open track.

** Lap 6 -- William Evans is down to last, Ines holding on in 14th for the moment, but it's not looking good for her to stay there.

** Lap 7 -- Nick Chu crashes! Well at least we can say we aren't last this time, though this isn't the way you want to beat somebody.

** Lap 10 -- Beauchamp doesn't come in and takes the lead; everyone else does. Most are on mediums, but we'll go with softs. Any warmer and they wouldn't be viable, but I think we can make it work. Santa Ana will try to hold onto her 15th spot for a while if possible, having gained two positions in the pits. It doesn't work -- we're dead last again half a lap later.

** Lap 14 -- Beauchamp goes in. Pretty foolish not to stop under caution I think.

** Lap 17 -- Santa Ana, right behind Alex Rogers for the last couple laps, gets by him on the front straight but can't hold it.

** Lap 20 -- Some of others pitted last lap; now it's our turn. I clearly underestimated how much this track would tax our brakes, as both drivers need work there. I think we can make the distance otherwhise though. Sabado, Beauchamp, and Antonov are the top three; Santa Ana comes out in 17th ...

** Lap 23 -- Dreyfuss goes by so we are back to last. Some of the others are having mechanical issues, but if they're able to finish there won't be anything Ines can do to catch them.

** Lap 26 -- Dembele and Vanaanen pit for repairs, and Santa Ana snags 16th! .... for the moment.

** Lap 27 -- Vanaanen roars by right away, but Aurele Dembele is 26 seconds back. Surely we can hold that margin with just over four laps to go ... right?

** Lap 28 -- Sabado goes by. Would have been nice to finish on the lead lap, but it's not to be.


Race Results

1. Andre Sabado(Firebird MRT) -- 47:07.194
2. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- +0.655
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +7.903

Three races, three different winners ... although Jha almost got back there in a fantastic finish.

17. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
19. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS


Post-Mortem

Definitely our best showing yet. First time we've finished ahead of anyone. In terms of the fastest laps, we were still slowest among those who finished the race. Ines managed 1:20.415 which was about a half-second worse than the others; William was three seconds slower. A new benchmark for Santa Ana now is how far she is behind 16th, the sponsor money spot; here it was just 12 seconds exactly down as compared to Claudia Dreyfuss. Also working towards getting her to finish on the lead lap.

Driver Standings(after 3 of 10 events)

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 59
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 52
3. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 49
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 49
5. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 48

It's very tight after a gap behind Jha.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 8
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 4

Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 108
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 101
3. Firebird MRT -- 91

10. Predator Racing Group -- 12

[Brian Swartz]

Tondela: Pre-Race Activities


** May 16 -- Tondela is next in a few weeks, with plenty of room on the straights but also some sharp turns. Meanwhile, we've got enough money to fund our first round of engine work. $1.5M, leaving us at $264k.

** May 29 -- Santa Ana's not thrilled at us only giving her a card instead of a party for her birthday, but we don't have the cash. Engine work is finished, but it'll be weeks before we can fund another round.

June 9: Tondela Preview A short 2-mile track, but we'll do 49 laps around it. Speed and sharp turns are key Figures to be a warm one, in the mid-70s. Combine that with a fairly abrasive surface, and tire condition will be a serious issue. Fuel usage figures to be middle of the road. Sponsor and projected finish remains unchanged. We're 7th overall in sponsors. Our suspension is up to 9th, ahead of ZRT Autosport, so that's something.

Practice Supersofts and soft tires allowed here. I'd prefer medium in this head, so we'll definitely go soft. Overall the drivers seemed a little more comfortable with the track here, pretty good session by our standards though still only fair. Tanvir Jha is back on top of leaderboard at 1:19.321, while we finished 19th and 20th, 4.18 and 5.67 seconds back. Almost a full second behind everyone. Not too pleased about that aspect.

Race Day Sunny and 75, with nothing but more of the same expected. #1 looked decent but we'll tighten up the suspension a bit, #2 was totally ready to go. Dembele dove to the inside in turn one and easily took the lead, but we held the next two spots. A couple of collisions started off the second in the pack behind us.

** Lap 4 -- 2nd and 5th, with the heat compelling a more cautious approach to the super-soft tires after just over a lap.

** Lap 5 -- A nice burst on the home stretch gets Ines up to 2nd! It won't last, but it's still nice. William is back to 6th.

** Lap 9 -- 5th and 13th, a reasonable start and better overall than we've done most of the time so far. Time for our first stop. There will be little choice today but a cautious run on soft tires.

** Lap 11 -- Adequate work and we're out in 18th and 20th, but nobody else has stopped yet.

** Lap 23 -- Almost halfway. Dembele, Cavalcanti, and Beauchamp are the top three with Jha close behind. We're in 9th and 20th, with Santa Ana bravely holding off several cars for the past few laps, but it's time for another stop. So far I like the way our strategy is working out. Evans has already been lapped, but that's no surprise. I think we'll be borderline on needing to do repairs again ... I'd like to ge reliability a little higher, but with the suspension work we haven't been able to do that yet.

** Lap 25 -- Out in 19th and 20th, and we'll see how much ground we make up when the others pit this time. Refueling mistakes by both crews; Evans' loss was negligible, but a little over half a second for Santa Ana.

** Lap 30 -- Ines gets lapped. Still some work to do to stay on the same lap as the top cars. Looks like the rest of the pack is slowly pulling away ...

** Lap 38 -- 16th and 20th. Many of the cars don't need to stop again though, while we do here. Everybody's still just too fast. Looks like Evans will be ok, but Santa Ana's brakes are iffy. They'll probably make it ... William has a short enough sprint left that he'll try to do it on supersofts.

Santa Ana comes out 19 seconds ahead of Valdes, who is on softer tires but had to do some repairs ...

** Lap 44 -- Both cars having significant trouble now, and Valdes has closed the gap. With six laps to go, holding him off seems unlikely. Beauchamp, Cavalcanti, and Jha are the leaders.

** Lap 45 -- Valdes goes by. That's that, looks like we're stuck in the final two positions.

Race Results

1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 69:04.858
2. Amanda Cavalcanti(Silva Racing) -- +10.952
3. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- +12.747

It was another 15-second gap after the top three. Garuda continues to rule, and the best showing so far by the youngster Cavalcanti. She's got a bright future.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +3 LAPS

Third time in four races we've occupied the last two spots. Evans actually had a faster lap than Santa Ana this time; she was a full second behind the field there. 14 behind Valdes for 18th, and 31.7 out of the sponsor money.

Driver Standings

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 77 points
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 71
3. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 69
4. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 64
5. Andre Sabado(Firebird MRT) -- 60

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 10
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 5

Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 146 pts
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 135
3. Firebird MRT -- 119

10. Predator Racing Group -- 15

[Brian Swartz]

Inter-Race Activities

** June 29 -- GMA Vote: Random Grids. This is the one proposal I'd really like to see pass. It would hurt us right now, as it would stop us from starting at the front all the time. Strikes a good balance between competitiveness and not punishing teams for being successful though IMO. As it turns out, my support wasn't even necessary. This passes overwhelmingly, 8-3!

** July 4 -- Chairman Darren Luff wants an upgrade to our data storage capabilities. It'll cost $500k, and frankly I think it's money we don't have to spend ... the current system will do. Luff isn't going to be happy, but he's pleased enough in general and I think we can overcome this hiccup.

** July 7: Ardennes -- We add on another spponsor deal signed with Wonderluck(4 races, $100k lump sum, $650k for 2nd or better). We're dead last in sponsorship, definitely not where I want to be. 8th now in suspensions though so we continue to move up a bit there. Should be looking a lot better reliability-wise, so I'm interested to see how that goes in this race. Hopefully we will perform a little better at the end, may even be able to push a little more with Evans ... not that I expect it'll make all that much difference. Still projected 19th and 20th, and I expect we'll stay that way for a while.

For practice, we go with soft tires as temps are even warmer than at Tondela, in the 70s. I was fairly surprised at how well they held up ... and how poorly we did otherwhise. Barely got basic diagnostic data completed, literally in the final seconds of the session. Yuck. Tanvir Jha was the fastest in 1:43.959, several tenths ahead of the others. We were in the last two positions again, 4.89 and 6.96 seconds behind. Not a great harbinger for turning things around this weekend.

On race day, it's partly cloudy and 77 for this fairly short 33-lap race. #1 looks pretty good, #2 is decent. A little downforce will hopefully help there, but no significant changes. Nick Chu blasts his way to the front on the first lap, with us holding 2nd and 4th. Already the supersofts are getting dangerously warm, and we're forced to back off. Sabado and Valdes hook up on the third lap, with Evans falling to 7th while Santa Ana holds on to 2nd comfortably, Chu pulling away quickly.

** Lap 11 -- Not a whole lot has happened. Ines is managing to hold in 5th the last several laps, and looks like she might be able to do ok. William is back to 18th, on his way to his usual last-place finish. As expected, it's a little too warm for supers so we'll go to softs the rest of the way. Chu, Antonov, and Beauchamp are the early top trio.

** Lap 13 -- We're out 10th and 20th, with most but not all having stopped. Santa Ana is trying to hold off a trio of cars behind her, and quickly losing ground on the others.

** Lap 14 -- Valdes goes by, while race leader Jha has been given a drive-thru penalty. Definitely looks like an off day for him. Then, during one of the jogs on the backstretch, Cavalcanti and Jonsdottir run into each other right behind Santa Ana. That'll help relieve some pressure ...

** Lap 15 -- Santa Ana's up to sixth with a number of others going in, and she'll have to start backing off the tires now. Alex Rogers goes by on the same backstretch hiccup.

** Lap 17 -- Halfway there, and Ines has five cars right behind her now. Beauchamp has taken the lead, with Chu and Arbeloa next.

** Lap 18 -- The dam breaks and Santa Ana is down to 10th now.

** Lap 23 -- 12th and 19th, though Evans has been last most of the time. Time to go in for our final stops, and this is looking as good as any race so far.

Out 17th between Dreyfuss and Dembele, while Evans will stay out for a few more. Looking good to finish the race though some parts are still close. Aurele Dembele is going flat-out and gets by ... doubt she keeps up that pace, but we'll see. 18th with 10 to go.

** Lap 24 -- Up to 15th as a few others come in, but they are all throwing on supersofts so it'll be a challenge to hold them off. If Ines can take 16th or better though, she'll get the sponsor bonus ...

** Lap 28 -- The pack has caught Santa Ana. She's up to 13th now with six to go. Let's see what they've got left. Amanda Cavalcanti goes by right away, but she holds off Rogers and extends again to a decent cushion. 14th.

** Lap 30 -- Rogers is back after fighting off Sabado, and gets by on one of the winding forest turns ... but only momentarily. Four to go.

** Lap 31 -- Beauchamp puts Ines a lap down. Just three laps away. Sigh. Even worse, she drops to 16th, with three right behind, in the chaos ... but there's fuel to burn now. Might as well use it ...

** Lap 32 -- Jonsdottir goes by anyway. Then Valdes does. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

** Lap 33 -- Rogers zooms by on the final lap, completing the misery.

Race Results

1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 60:46.461
2. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +15.004
3. Nick Chu(Dragon Race Team China) -- +42.544

Jha finished only 7th, but Beauchamp picks up the slack., Huge result for Chu and DRTC.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP

We were close to a respectable finish, but just weren't fast enough to prevent the continual drop through the field. Three competitors recorded a slower fastest lap than Santa Ana did though, so that was a nice first. 2.5s slower was Evans. We still suck ... but we sucked slightly less today. The race-day tweaks on William's car actually made it worse, but he was still only a little past a minute behind. Both cars were pretty worse out by the end -- reliability is still something we'll need to keep working on.

Less than eight seconds out of the sponsor money is also a new best.

Driver Standings(5 of 10 events finished)

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 91 pts
2. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 89
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 83
4. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 77
5. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 73

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 12
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 6

Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 180
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 160
3. Firebird MRT -- 141

10. Predator Racing Group -- 18

[Brian Swartz]

Inter-Race Activities

** July 10th -- Ines Santa Ana is now officially refusing to resign a contract as long as William Evans is here. Thankfully his contract will be up first, so I don't have to decide yet. She avers that 'he struts around like he owns the place ... he even uses my toothbrush!'.

Oh my. Meanwhile, Evans is having neck problems, so he'll be taking the next race at least off. Reserve Katie Linares will get to make her ERS debut. That'll be fun ... but it'd be hard for her to do worse ...

More importantly, we are up to just over two million in the bank now. $1.5M of it is forked over for the next round of engine design. This is the final preliminary payout; the one after this will be worked up for use in our races to conclude the year.

** July 23 -- Engine finished. We've got the price on this year's 'final' variant, and they'll cost $1.65M each. We've got just $540k right now, so we need more money first. No change of a quick influx of cash with all of our sponsor deals good for two more races, so it'll probably be a couple months before we can build them. Might not even get them into action this year.

Also, we've reached the point where we're fairly satisfied with reliability, and we're going to focus on improving performance. That'll be focused primarily on the suspensions we've developed this year.

Finally, William Evans says he's looking for work elsewhere, and wants out. Good for him. Hope the door doesn't hit him in the arse.


Munich(August 11

19th for Ines Santa Ana and 20th for Katie Linares are completely predictable finishes. Munich is one of the few tracks where suspensions are particularly important, so that should help us in the corners. The big difference between the earlier race here is that it's a little longer and faster in this layout; 39 laps at a little over 3 miles, instead of 43 at 2.72. We were 19th and 20th with both drivers 2 laps down the first time around .

Heavy rain was predicted for practice, but there was no sign of it at the start. Almost halfway through it started coming down. That was pretty much the end of anyone running competitive times. Sergey Antonov was fastest after winning here last time so he's definitely the favorite. 1:37.951 was his time. Santa Ana was 18th, 3.74s back but a few tenths ahead of Dembele; we've been last the past few practice rounds so that was nice. Linares was 7.36 back, but her only timed laps were after the rain came so she'll be a little more competitive than that I think. Did a little better overall than our past few races.

Sunny, 68, and holding for the race -- excellent weather. #1 was still needed more downforce and ... I think ... a little more acceleration. A little nervous about how that'll play out. #2 was looking excellent with no changes.

Ines started fast, taking advantage of Katie's inexperience and bolting to the lead. That left Linares to try and hold back the flood of others. That held up for about two-thirds of the first lap. Luigi Marchetta roared by Santa Ana to take the lead midway through the second lap. On the third, Bao Tang and Andrew Sabado are the first collision victims.

** Lap 4 -- Santa Ana slides from 2nd to 6th in a hurry, with Linares back to 12th. Time for the usual grind.

** Lap 8 -- Merja Vanaanen crashes. That leaves us in about 6th and 18th, and we'll make our first change. The combination of the current track and upper-60s weather is near-perfect for soft tires, so we'll stick with those. We've got a chance to do this in two stops ... but it'll be close.

11th and 18th after the others take less time in the pits. They're probably going with a 3-stop strat which might be better under the circumstances ... Santa Ana likely will fade to the back fairly quickly. Or maybe our mechanics just suck(they do). We'll see.

** Lap 12 -- Down to 14th after one lap of full-speed racing, but then Chu and Melo collide to make things interesting. Still we soon fade to being behind everyone else. Better make this 2-stop thing work; it's the only chance we've got.

** Lap 20 -- Halfway there, and we're 14th and 16th in a very fluid situation. Sometimes we move up due to pit stops, other times down due to being overtaken by faster cars. Not sure how this ends up. Cavalcanti and Antonov are the top two with Marchetta down to third.

** Lap 24 -- 14th and 19th for our final set of stops. 18th/19th out, 11 seconds behind El Sadat. We definitely need help now, but we'll get some of it at least.

** Lap 30 -- Santa Ana is up to 15th with 10 laps left. Melo's 8 back and steadily gaining, but she may be able to hold off the rest. Close race at the front with Cavalcanti just staying in front of Antonov; Jonsdottir is just a few seconds behind.

** Lap 33 -- Melo has caught up; Tang and Chu are close behind. Remains to be seen if Ines can hold any of them off, but it appears doubtful. Melo goes by to drop her to 16th, but Tang is next and having mechanical issues. Perhaps he'll have to stop again in the final laps ...

** Lap 34 -- Brakes are getting iffy for Linares. I think she'll be able to finish though.

** Lap 35 -- Tang just has enough to get by on the back section. We're out of the sponsor money late once again unless something changes.

** Lap 37 -- Claudia Dreyfuss, running 10th, retires due to mechanical problems. Should've taken the time to fix them, but we'll take the extra spot. At the end of the lap, Santa Ana gets passed by the leaders. So close once again to staying on the lead lap.

Tang pits though, and that moves her up to 16th with two to go!


Race Results

1. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 70:34.192
2. Amanda Cavalcanti(Silva Racing) -- +1.051
3. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +2.308

A dramatic finish for the second race at Munich; Antonov takes the lead going into the final turn to win! Disappointing for Cavalcanti but she's got another fine race. And for the first time, Garuda Racing(4th and 7th) is shut out of the podium.

16. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
18. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP

We lucked into it somewhat with other cars struggling, but this is our best finish of the year. $75k may not be much, but we'll take whatever bonus payments we can get. Speed-wise it was disappointing still. Santa Ana was nearly 2 seconds behind the best lap of the competition, and almost three more back to Linares.

Driver Standings(6 of 10 events)

1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 106 pts
2. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 105
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 99

Beauchamp takes over the lead by a hair over his teammate, with plenty of time left for things to shift further.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 17
21. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- 3

Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 211 pts
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 194
3. Firebird MRT -- 168

10. Predator Racing Group -- 26

We're up to $1.45M with the extra money ... still a couple hundred grand shy of what we need for the new engine.

[Brian Swartz]

Inter-Race Activities

** August 24 -- GMA Vote: Race length. The proposal would increase the average length of races from 43 to 47 laps. I'd prefer to keep them as they are, esp. with random grids coming in next year. However, it looks like it will fail on it's own and I don't care all that much, so I abstain here. The vote goes as expected, a 5-3 defeat.

** September 1 -- Mechanic Tom Woodbridge caught sneaking info out of the garage; he's suspected of leaking it to our competition. I decide to warn him this time with a fine($95k, half a year's wages for him). That doesn't make Chairman Luff or Woodbridge happy, but I can't ignore it and I didn't want to fire him, so it seemed the best option.

I hope he's smart enough not to try this kind of stunt again.

September 8: Guildford

Off to the UK where tire wear will be really high. Fast track with quite a few turns, but most of them fairly quick ones. 34 laps so it's a fairly short one as well. Evans is healthy again so he'll be back out there. Still dead last in sponsors but we've edged into 7th with our suspensions, which are still not at their best yet but most of the way there.

Unexpected rain for practice, but it figured to only last a brief time. Shortly after we switched to dry tires ... it came back. Bottom line is things were so unpredictable and constantly changing that Ines was the only one to record a timed lap -- with inters on a soaked track near the end. Got some good setup info with the constant in and out but we were easily 19th and 20th with no clue how competitive we'll be. I can guess though. Same drek, different race most likely. Tanvir Jha was back at the top, looking for a strong run after not doing well by his standards the last couple of events. 1:30.163 was his time.

The rain went away on Sunday -- partly cloudy and just 51. Setup for both cars was looking outstanding. Great start for Santa Ana had her roaring to the lead by two seconds before the second turn. After two laps it was time to back on the tires a bit and Santa Ana was still holding on to first. Evans had folded like an accordion, already back to 16th. Enjoy the back of the pack, William -- Ines will probably join you there eventually.

** Lap 5 -- One of the faster cars, Andre Sabado, has forced his way to the front and takes the lead. Evans is six seconds behind everyone meanwhile.

** Lap 7 -- Santa Ana's back to 5th as the blockade breaks down.

** Lap 8 -- Nick Chu, already running near the back, crashes. Santa Ana will stay on supersofts here and try to stick fairly high up in the field. Evans will go to soft tires, and he should only have to stop twice.

In 5th, out 4th for Ines; it was basically a photo-finish with Antonov but she got the spot by a hair. Sabado, Gerard, and Tang are the current leaders.

** Lap 14 -- Still think it was a good idea, but it didn't work. They flood by Santa Ana, down all the way to 16th after three laps at full speed.

** Lap 18 -- Ines comes in 17th, right at the halfway point. Managed to hold off Aurele Dembele by a little over a second, but that was it. Sabado/Gerard/Antonov are at the front.

Coming out, she's running a hair faster than Dembele on a much heavier fuel load. That could be one spot to pick up, but there'd need to be another to repeat 16th position.

** Lap 23 -- Up to 14th as most of the others have stopped: Evans prepares for his last stop. However, it looks like a lot of them are going to be able to go the last 12-13 laps here, while Santa Ana will have to come in again in a few. That could doom her. Sabado, Cavalcanti with another strong race, and Gerard in front.

** Lap 28 -- In 15th, out 18th. 7 laps to go and 16 seconds to make up unless somebody stops. Unlikely, but Dembele was having mechanical issues already ...

Meanwhile Cavalcanti is making another bid for a win, taking the lead from Sabado.

** Lap 30 -- The predictable late-race lapping of Santa Ana. It's a tradition. And she's only falling further behind the others. Looks like Sabado is having issues with his car, explaining why he lost the lead.


Race Results

1. Amanda Cavalcanti(Silva Racing) -- 55:34.070
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +8.263
3. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- +9.198

After leading most of the race, Sabado tumbled to 4th late. Definitely a big moment for young Cavalcanti and Silva Racing, as they snag their first win. I see many more in her future.

18. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
19. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS

The restart after Chu's crash was definitely the key moment. Santa Ana was unable to duplicate her fast start to the race, and then making an extra stop compared to almost everyone else was crippling. Her fastest lap of 1:28.448(on the first lap, no less) was a competitive, middle-of-the-pack time. Consistency wasn't there though. At over 1:34, Evans was three seconds back of the field. After making 16th last week, Santa Ana was 19 seconds behind that spot here. Unfortunate.


Driver Standings(7 of 10 events)

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 123 pts
2. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 119
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 115
4. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 114
5. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 109

With three to go, Jha is back in front of what is still quite a competitive race.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 20
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 8


Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 242 pts
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 229
3. Firebird MRT -- 197

Garuda still has the edge, but they're not home yet.

10. Predator Racing Group -- 31

Archer BMR is 9th with 106. We're in a class by ourselves at the bottom.

[NoSkillz]

Tough year. Hopefully you'll be in a position to improve next season.

I've noticed you talking about being short money to improve parts and such. You know you can essentially go into the hole for up to 5 million pounds right? You'll always be sure of getting a sizeable payday after the season ends to get you back into the positive figures but I don't know how I would have improved without that capability of going into the negatives during the season.

[Brian Swartz]

I don't know how far you can go into debt, but I do know it's possible. I prefer to play by spending within my means though. It would give me a jumpstart, but I don't think it would do more than that -- still gotta make money in the long run.

My long-term plan is to be competitive starting in 2018. Based on the first game I think I can make that happen -- right now it's just basically laying the groundwork.

[Tellistto]

Took me 4 seasons, one season past Rodriguez, to get up to the next level. Then one season mid table in Asia-Pacific, before winning it twice in a row and taking the promo the second time.

I will just say this, neither of your drivers will get you to the next level anytime soon.

Also...after the first year your money situation improves greatly, as you probably know. Just the first season in any league is tough due to cash being lower than necessary. Since owner payments don't really rise with promotions. Was very disappointed over that one.

Course, I had two stud drivers in Millie Davis and Bindo, let Bindo walk because I found two full potential kids. Course, that first season in World's, with the 8th best cars overall, we finished 4th in team.

Now with one of the kids driving, Luff wants higher than I thought possible with the new ones.

Driver makes a TON of difference.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Inter-Race Activities


** September 11th -- At well over $2M, we've now got plenty of money for our first premium engine to get built. It'll take three weeks, and will have to wait a couple more races before it sees action, but we can at least get the ball rolling here.

One good thing about Guildford is we didn't run into any reliability issues with the parts; they were still doing ok by the end of the race. I think we've hit our sweet spot in that regard. We'll focus on finishing up maxing out the suspensions now.

** October 1st -- Tensions have boiled over. William Evans got into a fight with Ines Santa Ana, resulting in actual punches being thrown. That's the last straw. We can't really afford it, but I don't see where I have a choice -- I terminate Evans. Don't know whose fault the fight was, but there's only one solution to this and Santa Ana's our only decent driver. The buyout clause is for $229k at this point, so it's an expensive decision. Katie Linares will be back in car #2 for now. We'll have a temp reserve for that period, Isla Gribben, who'll make just 1k a race. That'll help us gain back some of Evans' buyout fee, and then we'll need to address a more permanent solution in the offseason.

** October 2nd -- Engine work finished. The whole team down at the factory will devote itself to whipping that thing into place. Meanwhile we have a new sponsor deal to concern ourselves with. Boa Vista offers a tempting $1M right now for a 6-race deal, but in the long run Peach-Plum($350k per race for 9) is better. Either way, we can't fund the next engine until after this upcoming race.


Tondela

Like Munich, the second race here is longer(39 laps, 3.08 mi. ea.) than the first one. Moderate fuel usage and high tire wear, a lot of slow corners that are tough to get in and out of quickly so the gearbox is vital. Our suspensions are nearly at their peak now. Still 7th but not far below average. If the engine looks that good by year's end I'll be happy. We're still sitting dead last everywhere including sponsors.

Tanvir Jha(1:37.359) was the fastest again by nearly three-quarters of a second. Decent practice for us, 19th and 20th again, 4.9s and 6.67s behind. Pretty much getting used to being in that 4.5-5 second range.

Partly cloudy and 69 for the race. Hoping we can stick with soft tires, but might have to switch to mediums later. #1 looked ok, downforce wasn't quite there but not sure how to change it. #2 had a long way to go, some definite responsiveness issues with the handling. Roughest setup we've had this year.

We alternate the lead through the first few turns, before Ines grabs it on the back of the track. Dembele gets by on the last turn, with Linares still surprisingly holding third. On the 3rd lap, Beauchamp is a surprise casualty of a drive-thru penalty, and the tires are already overheating badly.

** Lap 5 -- Looks like I was too aggressive and had both drivers ride the tires too hard. Backing off now but might have to pit earlier than I wanted.

** Lap 10 -- We're 10th and 17th, not looking particularly good as we set for the first stops. Linares will have to go to mediums. I think Santa Ana might just make it on softs ... she's a much smoother driver. That's what I'm going for, at any rate. We're out 15th and 20th ... fast stop for Ines, but Katie's team messed up the fuel and cost her an extra second-plus. Good thing she's not fast enough to matter, esp. with a still pretty subpar setup(92%).

** Lap 13 -- Right behind Santa Ana, Dreyfuss and Tang run into each other on the first turn. That'll clear out the traffic a bit for a while.

** Lap 19 -- 11th and 20th near midway, but Santa Ana has to back off the tires to make them last long enough now. She'll probably drop some spots in doing that. Sergey Antonov is running away with this so far, Jonsdottir and Dembele about 15 behind.

** Lap 25 -- 15th and 20th, time for our last stop. Out 18th and 20th ... Bao Tang is 20+ behind Santa Ana, but everything else depends on how much the rest have left.

** Lap 28 -- 17th as Dreyfuss pits. Seems very unlikely Santa Ana will finish any higher than this, with more than 20 seconds ahead to Rogers.

** Lap 34 -- Surprise stop by Sergio Valdes, and Santa Ana is up to 16th now. It'd be really nice to stay there. Antonov leads by almost a half-minute over Jonsdottir and Jha.

Lap 37 -- Valdes goes by. No real chance to hold him back. Dreyfuss follows shortly thereafter, and that should pretty much do it.

Ines limps on dangerously bald tires through the last couple of laps. Stretched a bit too far, though going with a 3-stop strategy might not have been any better.


Race Results

1. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 66:52.751
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- +36.148
3. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- +38.848

Dominant win here by Antonov.

18. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
20. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS

Would have been much worse without the other drivers running into each other. Santa Ana's best lap was a second and a half worse than the field; another 2.5-plus slower for Linares. Got our butts kicked worse than usual, mostly due to the comparatively poor setups.


Driver Standings(8 of 10 events)

1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing) -- 141 pts
2. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 133
3. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 132
4. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 131
5. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 129

A poor showing by Beauchamp here has things looking a lot more interesting.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 23
21. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- 4


Team Standings

1. Garuda Racing -- 270 pts
2. Eastwood Motorsport -- 265
3. Firebird MRT -- 224

10. Predator Racing Group -- 35

Garuda's early-season dominance has faded. It looks like the battle with Eastwood will go right down to the wire ...

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Tellisstto

I will just say this, neither of your drivers will get you to the next level anytime soon.

Also...after the first year your money situation improves greatly, as you probably know. Just the first season in any league is tough due to cash being lower than necessary. Since owner payments don't really rise with promotions. Was very disappointed over that one.

Yep, I totally agree. I'm approaching it right now with the idea of improving the car first. I will say that Santa Ana is capable of being one of the better ERS drivers after a few years. Don't know yet if I'll go that route again or not, but I was able to have her in the Top 5 with some wins and know I could do better. Thing is right now everything I invest in better drivers is something not invested in better parts, which I consider to be the most important long-term need at this point. Pretty much everything will need to be improved eventually to have a chance at promotion. Right now? That's like worrying about supper when I haven't had breakfast yet.

[Brian Swartz]

Inter-Race Activities

** October 9 -- Turns out Katie Linares developed some neck issues during the race. She can still go, and given that I'll have no choice to put her out there ... she's just going to suck even more than usual.

We get to work on the second premium engine right away. $1.65M is the price tag again, taking us down to just $90k left.

** October 16 -- We've now scouted all the active drivers in the European Racing Series. We'll turn our attention to the unemployed ones now, searching for a diamond in the rough. We'll eventually want to scout those in the higher tiers as well, but the chances of getting those established drivers to work for lowly PRG is ... unlikely.

** October 19 -- GMA Vote: Low Profile Tyres. These are a little faster, and a little more expensive, than our current road tires($10k to $15k per race). 5k per race is virtually nothing, and it looks likely to fail, but I vote against it anyway. The more money we have for other things, the better. This proposal fails 6-4; it was fairly close.

Meanwhile, another request by the chairman that we fork over a half-mil to work on server issues. With only a fraction of that on hand, it isn't happening.

** October 31 -- Engine finished. That'll do it for those. The first one's ready, and this second one will get the reliability treatment now. Time to sign a new sponsor as well: Sheikh Airways gives us $450k now, and $85k a race for 4 races.

A pretty big decision to make here. Do we go for another round of part development with the gearbox or brakes, or save up for the off-season? With only a month and a half left in the year, we don't have enough time left for the gearbox -- but brakes are faster. We can't improve them much, but every little bit will help. I think that's the best use of our money, even if we don't get any use out of them this year. Groundwork for next season is the name of the game. $500k for the first round, which leaves us with a whopping $40k.


Milan

A couple more sponsor slots to fill. Wonderluck's usual($100k, $650k for 2nd or better, 4 races) is the only option for one slot. The clear choice for the second is Wan Chai Industries($750k up front, $450k over 8 races for 9th or better). That's a nice boost to our account.

Sergey Antonov gets the fastest practice lap by far, in 1:22.005. Santa Ana is 18th(3.50s back) and Linares 20th(6.85s). The improved engine may be helping a bit. We'll see if that translates at all into the race. Milan is always the easiest track to practice on, so I'm not too optimistic yet.

A cool day for the race, sunny and 65. Definitely a day for the soft tires all the way through I think. #1 is looking decent, #2 very good. We'll be sticking with both. Slow start for Santa Ana, who is quickly back to 4th. She's up to 3rd with Linares 4th, Rogers and Chu ahead after one lap.

** Lap 6 -- Linares is last and several seconds back of the field; Santa Ana 9th and steadily fading.

** Lap 9 -- Ines is 12th, and it's time for the first stop. Out 19th as we were the first ones in.

** Lap 14 -- Everyone's pitted, and Ines is up to 17th but it seems unlikely she can hold that.

** Lap 17 -- Cavalcanti goes by, but Santa Ana gets past Aurele Dembele. She's on medium tires and is actually a little slower -- might be a spot we can hold.

** Lap 19 -- El Sadat goes by. 18th and 20th now. Might well be our finishing positions. This race goes by so quickly. Jonsdottir, Chu, and Vanaanen are up front. Shocked to see Nick Chu doing so well.

** Lap 23 -- Last stop, and Santa Ana comes out 19th right in front of Dembele. Focusing on that, I forget to have Linares come in and she runs out of fuel. Was going to be last anyway, I just made it worse.

Dembele's on softs now, and quickly gets by ... but she's having mechanical problems so that may not last long. Hopefully.

** Lap 26 -- With six to go, it's time to get lapped by Jonsdottir.

** Lap 29 -- At the start, with three left, Santa Ana gets back in front of Dembele! Small victories. Now to hold it.


Race Results

1. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 44:30.857
2. Andre Sabado(Firebird MRT) -- +17.877
3. Merja Vanaanen(Vexala Motorsport) -- +22.894

First win for Jonsdottir in a lightning-fast race.

18. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
20. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS

Ines was 18th in terms of fastest laps, just ahead of Dembele. Almost three seconds more back to Linares. Santa Ana ends about 21.5s behind 16th for the sponsor money; we still need a lot of help and luck to make that.

For the first time this year, there are a number of part violations assessed. Sabado gets one, bumping him to 4th, and Antonov gets on the podium. Gerard and Cavalcanti are cited as well, moving Santa Ana up to 16th! Just enough for the $75k bonus.

I guess we say thanks for cheating?!


Driver Standings(9 out of 10 events)

1. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 155 pts
1. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing)
3. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport) -- 149
4. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 147
5. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing) -- 141

Tied going into the final race. Should be a heck of a finale.

19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 28
21. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- 5


Team Standings

1. Eastwood Motorsport -- 302
2. Garuda Racing -- 296
3. Firebird MRT -- 245
3. Vexala Motorsport -- 245

Anything can happen at the end here, but Garuda's aging drivers have clearly fallen off late in the year. Eastwood has come all the way back and is now a pretty strong favorite to promote so long as they take care of business.

10. Predator Racing Group -- 41

[Brian Swartz]

** November 6 -- Brakes finished. Another $500k for the next round.

** November 11 -- Another set of brakes ready. Time for the premium ones to get built. Just a week for each, $600k apiece.

** November 18th -- First set done, one more to go. Won't be time to get them ready for use this year, but hopefully we've learned something that will help in the future.

** November 25th -- Last set finished. Still over a half-million left in the bank, and one more race to go.

** December 1: Black Sea. Last race of the year, and rain is expected. Super.

Sergey Antonov(1:26.996) takes first in practice. We didn't hear much from the drivers the first few laps which was not a good sign, but overall it ended up being our best session of the season I think. Ines Santa Ana was 16th(2.4s back) and Katie Linares last(5.36). If Santa Ana is anything close to that competitive, she could have a strong finale to the season. Here's hoping ...

Steady rain and a cold 42 as we ready for the start of the year's last race. Not that wet to start but it'll be soaked soon. Might as well just go on wets from the beginning. Both cars definitely needed some tuning, a relic of the lack of info from practice early on. Really hoping we got things right today.

Great start from Santa Ana and she's out in front right away. Linares was back to last by midway through lap 3 ... but Ines still held onto the lead. Passing is hard in this drek,.

** Lap 10 -- Not much has changed. Time for our first stops. Linares is happy with her car, but Santa Ana's is still not nearly optimal(88%). Imagine if she had things running properly ... we'll just have to make the most of it. Ines comes out 13th, with most drivers still on the track. It's still raining, but not as heavily.

I soon realize we've really got too much fuel. Probably only a few laps till enough water's gone to switch to inters. Might as well push it and go as fast as we can.

** Lap 17 -- Nearing halfway, pretty much everyone's been in once and Santa Ana is 4th. Valdes, Jonsdottir, and Gerard are the top three. Excellent race for her so far, particularly considering what's happened.

** Lap 19 -- I think it's time to switch to inters. No sign of the rain stopping, so we'll treat like this we are going to need this stop and one more. Refueling costs just over a full second and Santa Ana's out 17th. Everyone else still on wets. You know where Linares is; definitely last. Arbeloa's flagged for causing a collison with Sabado, setting both of those back,.

** Lap 23 -- After everyone changes to intermediates, Santa Ana is 4th. Some of the cars behind will catch her for sure, but 4th in the second half of a race is a major thing to celebrate. I think the other drivers clearly switched a lap or two late, and we really gained some speed from that.

** Lap 24 -- Merja Vanaanen goes by, and others are closing. Only thing to do here is hold them off as long as possible. The track is getting a bit drier, quite slowly, as the light rain continues. The fastest cars will have more and more of an edge as this goes on.

** Lap 25 -- Down to 7th as Ines laps Linares. That's a bit awkward, but she's injured.

** Lap 30 -- Time to come in again. Looks like the rain will pick up and we'll have wet-tire racing at the end. Oh joy. Could go either way, but I'm betting it's soon enough to make another late stop. Ines is 10th, and barely holding on there ...

Out in 15th, in the middle of 14-17 which are bunched.

** Lap 32 -- Arbeloa gets by but half the field stops. Ends up putting Santa Ana in 14th for the moment. Looks like chaos as we finish. Jonsdottir, Gerard, and Valdes are up front. Jha is 5th but that won't be enough to save Garuda ...

** Lap 35 -- And here comes the rain. Time for our last stop. Will everyone else come in or try to leg it out on inters? Time to find out.

** Lap 36 -- Most came in and Santa Ana holds in 14th. That'd be her best finish of the year ... time to get lapped by Jonsdottir, mechanical problems and all. Naturally.


Race Results

1. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 65:38.056
2. Jean-Pierre Gerard(Firebird MRT) -- +33.002
3. Merja Vanaanen(Vexala Motorsport) -- +47.179

Big win for Jonsdottir, easily limping home with it, and that should give Eastwood the title. Tanvir Jha was 4th.

14. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
20. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- +2 LAPS

A step forward for Ines, poor setup and all. Didn't beat anyone in the fastest lap comparison, but we were able to use the weather and a quick start. A smart race, even if not a particularly fast one. Luigi Marchetta is flagged for a part violation, getting Santa Ana one more spot to 13th.

[Brian Swartz]

2016 Wrap-Up

World Motosport Championship

Scuderia Rossini dominates with 7 wins and 397 points to take the world title; Panther Race Team is second with 5 and 316; Steinmann Motorsport has 3 and 276. That's the big three of open-wheel racing, and the ease of Scuderia's win comes as a surprise; last game Steinmann was usually the champ. The only other team to get a race victory was 4th-place Windsor Racing. At the bottom, Chariot Motor Group was the clear choice for relegation with 14 points. The 7-9 place teams were in the 37-47 points range, so Chariot is clearly the one who doesn't belong.

Individually, Scuderia's Dieter Wexler(29) had 6 wins and 8 total podium finishes. That's twice as many wins as any other driver, and he has 218 points to win the title. Steinmann's Harry Chapman(31) was second with 195, while Zoe Sharp(27) was in third for Panther with 183.


Asia-Pacific Super Cup

This one went right down to the wire. In the end, MacNeil Racing Team(4 wins) just edged out Espirit-GP(5) 98 to 97. A distant third was Boa Esperanca at 71, and they had about triple the points of anyone else here. MacNeil earns the promotion to the WMC by the most slender of margins, so Chariot will join this tier. On the other end, Ozu Motor Team was the lone outfit to fail to earn a single point, making them the relegation choice.

Young Freya Larsen(23) had all of Espirit GP's wins and dominated to win the circuit with 89 points. Clearly Larsen is a star in the making. Jessica Munroe(33) had 66 for MacNeil Racing, and in third it was Gustavo Costa(27) earning 56 points for Boa Esperanca.


European Racing Series

Final Team Standings

1. Eastwood Motorsport(2 wins) -- 364
2. Garuda Racing(3) -- 352
3. Vexala Motorsport(3) -- 313
4. Firebird MRT(1) -- 301
5. Silva Racing(1) -- 205
6. Octane Racing -- 192
7. Archer BMR -- 186
8. Dragon Race Team China -- 179
8. ZRT Autosport -- 179
10. Predator Racing Group -- 59

There's a clear top four here, but Eastwood goes up while Garuda must find a way to reload, and we're joined by Ozu Motor Team next year. The next five teams are pretty closely bunched together, and then there's us ... miles below the field. Clearly nowhere to go but up here. We get $11.25M as our prize money payout, and can be thankful that there's not much of a merit bonus; we don't lose out too much compared to the others.

Harvey Wheaton of Vexala is named Manager of the Year.


Final Driver Standings

1. Edda Jonsdottir(Eastwood Motorsport, 2 wins) -- 197
2. Tanvir Jha(Garuda Racing, 1) -- 189
3. Sergey Antonov(Vexala Motorsport, 3) -- 181
4. Sergio Arbeloa(Eastwood Motorsport) -- 167
5. Jean-Francois Beauchamp(Garuda Racing, 2) -- 163
6. Jean-Pierre Gerard(Firebird MRT) -- 153
7. Andre Sabado(Firebird MRT, 1) -- 148
8. Merja Vanaanen(Vexala Motorsport) -- 132
9. Amanda Cavalcanti(Silva Racing, 1) -- 119
10. Sergio Valdes(ZRT Autosport) -- 108

18. Aurele Dembele(ZRT Autosport) -- 71
19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 44
20. William Evans(Predator Racing Group) -- 8
21. Katie Linares(Predator Racing Group) -- 7

Edda Jonsdottir is the clear choice for Driver of the Year, esp. with the way things finished. As of right now, Ozu, Firebird MRT, and Vexala Motorsport look like they are in the best position to challenge for next year's title. Beauchamp and Jha both retire, so Garuda Racing will have to start from scratch. A lot will depend on who they are able to hire, and what other changes happen during the 'silly season' as personnel change teams for various reasons; or sometimes no good ones at all, they just want to try something new.

[Brian Swartz]

2016 Offseason

Part development and competitiveness continues to be job 1. While finances were sometimes an obstacle, they were not the biggest one. We were only able to max out our suspensions; brakes ended the year only at about 2/3rds of their potential, engines at a little under half. We need to invest more in our ability to develop parts once Charlotte Williams' team has designed and built improved versions. Some progress was made, but suspensions were the only significant improvement(up to 8th). We're still dead last in the other three categories.

It's time to spend some serious money. With our prize money payment having arrived, we're at $13.2M. The majority, $8M will go towards upgrading our factory facility. About half of the ERS has the same bare-bones operation that we have; the other half are already expanded, and we need to join that group. This will double the number of staff available for our mechanics to supervise in part improvement activities in-between races from 10 to 20. Expenses will rise significantly as well; the new factory will require $170k per race to maintain, compared to just $20k right now. It's got to be done though -- there's no other way to catch up.

The second thing to deal with is our mechanics. Both Tom Woodbridge and Oscar Deveritt suck at reliability improvements; Deveritt is at least decent at performance. Woodbridge will stick around due to being reasonably decent as a race-day mechanic for Santa Ana. It's time for Deveritt to go though, and I'm primarily looking for someone to do well at supervising factory operations on the parts. What they do during the race is not as important. Toby Hart(27) looks to be the best of the reasonably inexpensive options. He's decent at performance, a hair better than Deveritt, and good in the reliability department where he figures to be a major upgrade. Also decent at pit stops so he shouldn't be a major disaster on race day. Overall he grades out as below-average; I didn't want to break the bank here. We send out an offer to Hart.

Then we need to handle our driver situation. Still two years left on Ines Santa Ana(24)'s contract. She's reasonably inexpensive, below-average but competent, and still improving. Katie Linares I'd like to bring back as a cheap reserve, if she'll accept that role after seeing some track time this year. Her contract is up, so we'll see what happens there. Then we need a second main driver. This really comes down to one thing: what are we willing to pay? Above-average 'free agent' Lisandro Cruz from South America was the top end among the drivers we'd scouted so far: he'd be one of the best ERS drivers but also would demand about a half-million per race. I don't think that's a wise investment. Italian Simone Santore(25), a reserve at Vexala, is about at Santa Ana's level and has more talent, they could grow together, and she'd be available for $110-$120k per race, quite cheap. Not particularly marketable though. In the end I went for a middle option. Hong Liao(18), a reserve for Dragon Race Team China, has his contract running out. We'd offer him a 'promotion' to being a regular race-day driver. He's average overall right now with the potential to get a lot better; a good practice driver with high marks for feedback and also focused and in good shape. Consistency and smooth driving are his weak points. Plenty of time for him to get better though, and he is capable of being a top ERS driver in time while being a major improvement right now. Liao's also got pretty good marketability, something we sorely need to bring in more sponsor money. Our starting offer is at $290k. He doesn't want to sign a long deal which is somewhat worrisome, but we'll try for 2 years and see what happens there.

Time to wait and see what transpires here ...

Rules Changes

** Addition of Doha
** Random Grids

Doha will bring in more money to everyone, and the random grids are likely to hurt us more than help, at least initially.

December 13: Chassis Design

Our goal here is to spend as little as possible while maximizing improvability so we can work on parts more during the year. With the money saved up during the year for this expense, we start at $10.2M. End up spending $7M, a fairly cheap outlay, leaving a little over $3M in the bank.

Here's how the chassis figures to look compared to last year:

** Tire Wear -- Poor or a hair better; was Worthless/Terrible
** Tire Heating -- Poor to Below-Average; was Worthless/Terrible
** Fuel Efficiency -- Below-Average to Average; was Poor
** Improvability -- Below-Average to Average; was Terrible

So we don't spend that much, but still have a significantly improved chassis. I like it.

Later on that day, we meet with our new proposed staff members to discuss what they think about our contract offers.

** Driver Katie Linares isn't happy about going back to being a reserve, but for a 3-year deal she's willing to do it. She signs for $32k per race and no bonus clause; that's actually a savings from her present $40k deal. For that price, I'd be a fool not to take this.

** Driver Hong Liao is fairly happy with our offer, but wants to hold out for a little more. He's being fairly patient, so I try to play hardball and simply send out the same thing again; maybe he'll bend first.

** Mechanic Toby Hart isn't ready to sign yet either, and he says our next offer better improve or he's walking away from negotiations. I bump up our wage proposal to $32k a race. We're talking about maybe $50-$60k a year difference, no point in losing him over that.

** December 18th -- Linares has taken up meditation, which will improve her focus on the track for a while.

** December 19 -- Hart is pleased with our new deal. He signs for $32k per race; Deveritt is presently making $13k, so that's a little over $200k a year in increased costs for his services. Then there's the matter of Deveritt's $75k fee for breaking his contract two years early, and another $41k as a signing fee for Hart.

** December 21 -- Hong Liao comes back and says his position hasn't changed. Fairly happy with the offer, but not ready to sign. I bump up to $315k a race; hopefully that's enough for him.

** December 29 -- Liao signs!

That pretty much takes care of our offseason business. We've got a better chassis, a better factory mechanic, upgrading the factory itself is in play, and a second quality driver. We should be looking much better in 2017 ... but how much of a difference will it really make? That we'll have to wait and see on. Once the signing fee is dealt with, we're down to about $2.7M left.

** January 7 -- Offer to improve tire wear for $1.5M. I'd rather save the money right now.

** January 21 -- Improvability can be boosted for the same price. That I'll definitely invest in. Down to $1.2M.

** February 24 -- Ines Santa Ana gets in a barfight! She's got a shiner, but everything should be fine by the time our first race rolls around.

Also, an opportunity from our fuel supplier to improve efficiency for $1.5M. Much as I'd like that, we can't afford it.

[hoosierdude]

So glad this one is back, I want to play this one so bad, but, I believe my system requirements are not able to. Sounds like a lot of fun to say the least, and all the dynasty reports on this game really generate the interest in the game.

Thanks. I will be following as I have since you started. Great job, man.

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks for the generous comments. FYI there is a 2D display for races, to help with those who have minimal systems. I'll put up a few screenshots of some things to show the game a little more after the debacle that was our first race of the year.

[Brian Swartz]

I'm going to do a bit of a walk-through thing, show the different race views, etc. but that will come after the second race of the year.


2017 Pre-Season

March 5 -- Preseason Testing

1. J. Gerard(Firebird MRT) -- 1:58.679
2. M. Hawkins(Ozu Motor Team) -- 1:58.916
3. E. Tyler(Dragon Race Team China) -- 1:58.918

10. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 2:02.118
19. Hong Liao(Predator Racing Group) -- 2:05.985(Oil Leak)

Very respectable finish for Santa Ana; if she does anywhere near that well I'll be happy. Hopefully we can take care of Liao's oil leak issue, as I definitely want more from him than he showed.

Expectations

Chairman Darren Luff and I meet, and agree that we're probably bracing for a last-place finish this year. I'm hoping to be more competitive and continue the mechanical work really. Once again we'll get $1.54M per race.

Not being able to finish up performance improvements last year on the brakes and engine definitely hurt us. To really progress compared to other ERS teams, we need to make use of our investments to do better in that area this season.

ERS Teams

Ozu Motor Team(Poor) -- The Japan-based newcomers, fresh off a demotion, have a decent HQ with an improved factory and 30 total staff. I'm not sure on their drivers yet as I'm working on scouting a couple of them. Jonas Braunlich has 8 years experience as a regular APS driver for Ozu and Ruiz Motorsport, but has yet to make a single podium. Young American Michelle Hawkins(18) is a new signee making her debut. They've got a highly-competitive car(3rd) and the best staff in this tier, but are average or worse elsewhere.

Garuda Racing(Poor to Below-Average) -- Unquestionably the most-respected team remaining with Eastwood moving up, Garuda got a couple of good, talented drivers in Lisandro Cruz(24) and Sofi Sevilla(30) to replace their retirees. The second-best cars on the circuit along with the best drivers and HQ support give them a strong chance of overcoming last year's disappointment and getting promoted this season. They are no worse than 2nd in any category in fact, boasting 46 staff and improved factory and design centre facilities.

Octane Racing(Poor) -- A serviceable car, above-average drivers and competitive staff for Octane, but they've got a bare-bones staff of 20 at the headquarters. They bring in Andre Sabado(31), who had a win for Firebird last year, and young Claudia Dreyfuss(18) is back for another season. As a pair those two are 4th overall, and both still improving. Marketability and support are probably still fatal flaws here though.

Vexala Motorsport(Poor) -- Pretty good cars for Vexala(4th overall), but they're at least a bit below-average everywhere else and are another team with a bare-bones HQ. They've got a pair of drivers in their prime in Sergey Antonov(32) who won three races last year, and Merja Vanaanen(30) who is coming off a pair of podium finishes. Same group they had a year ago to finish third. Without more support for them, it's hard to see Vexala improving on that result.

Firebird MRT(Poor) -- Technically, last year's 4th-place finishers have the best cars in the ERS. Above-average HQ(37 staff, upgraded design centre) and staff, but they haven't got enough talent behind the wheel. Sabado is gone, replaced by Oscar Diaz(32) in what is pretty much an even trade. Jean-Pierre Gerard(25) is still improving but weaker than most drivers on the circuit. This is his 4th year with the team, finally breaking through for his first podium finish in '16.

Silva Racing(Poor) -- Another team that's got everything but sufficient driving talent. Above-average car(4th) and staff(3rd) along with a decent HQ(by ERS standards, that is. Objectively they are all Terrible or Worthless). Eduardo Melo(23) is back for his fifth year and is the weak link; Amanda Cavalcanti(21) had a victory and three podiums, and is clearly headed for bigger things.

Dragon Race Team China(Poor) -- One of the best headquarters around(2nd only to Garuda), Dragon has 44 staff and upgraded factory and design centre facilities. Car, staff, sponsorship are all average. They've upgraded their driving talent this year, and are hoping to do much better than last year's 8th-place tie. Ebony Tyler(18) is a talented young Brit who was a reserve for Ozu last year. He should already be one of the top drivers around here, though he's got a limited ceiling. Biggest flaw for Tyler is he doesn't do well when frontrunning. Luigi Marchetta(32) takes the second spot and is decent, but not better. He failed to make the podium for Octane last year. I think Dragon will move up into the top half this season with the addition of Ebony.

Predator Racing Group(Terrible to Poor[/u] -- We're a little above-average in terms of marketability now, but otherwhise dead last across the board even with the newcomers. It's just last by less than before. Remains to be seen whether that's enough for us to squeeze out a little more in terms of results.

ZRT Autosport(Terrible to Poor) -- One of the top teams in terms of getting sponsors, ZRT doesn't have much in the way of HQ(minimal), staff(9th, just barely ahead of us), or their cars(also 9th). The one big edge they do have over us is their drivers. Sergio Valdes(21) returns for a second year, and Sergio Arbeloa(25) arrives to replace Dembele. Eastwood Motorsport didn't want to retain Arbeloa after they were promoted; he had three podium finishes last year and should be an upgrade, though still not quite as good as Valdes.

Archer BMR(Terrible to Poor) -- Archer has decent support(4th HQ), a passable car(8th), but their staff and drivers are 8th as well. They're just below the bar in too many areas to hope for progress. Sponsorship's not bad, but other than that ... Mustafa El Sadat(25) is back for a third season, while Alex Rogers(35) heads into a remarkable 13th year as an ERS driver. It's particularly impressive when you consider he's definitely one of the weaker regulars. The first 8 years of that were with Predator before he joined Archer BMR. El Sadat's good enough to be competitive, but I don't see Rogers sticking around for many more years. He's done well to maintain his level this long.



Car

** Overall -- 10th
** Engine -- 10th(62, up 244% from 18)
** Gearbox -- 10th(24, down 41% from 41)
** Brakes -- 10th(50, up 43% from 35)
** Suspension -- 8th(157, up 362% from 34)

After talking to Williams, it seems our best ideas are once again on the suspension. Gearbox and brakes are in the middle range, and it doesn't look like we've got a lot of good options for improving our engines. The goal then this year is do more suspension work which should end up with things above-average on that front, and get our gearbox and brakes more competitive. If we can get some engine stuff done at the end great, but that'll be secondary. The fact that our gearbox, due to basically being ignored last year, got even worse, is quite disturbing. That really points up the importance of our factory investments.

Headquarters

** Overall -- 8th(--)
** Design -- 7th(--)
** Factory -- 8th(--)
** Peformance -- 7th(--)
** Staff -- 7th(--)
** Staff & Brand -- 7th(--)

No change at all here from a year ago. The factory upgrade is still several weeks from being finished.

Finances

This was one of the areas I was most curious about this season, because we've got more money going out.

** Next Year's Chassis -- $454k. This is down from $500k due to their being more races to take the cash out of.
** Drivers -- $498k(nearly double the $257k we paid last season)
** Race Mechanics -- $48k(up 30% from $37k)
** Designer -- $9k(-$1k, I think there's a pro-rating thing going on with the expanded schedule)
** HQ Upkeep/Staff -- $36k(down from $40k for the same reason. Same price, just less per race)
** Travel Costs -- $70k(same)
** Chairman Payments -- $1.548m(same)

The only big difference here right now is the drivers; factory costs will come into play a little later.

Time to get to work on a suspension, have Toby Hart start working his magic in terms of ironing out reliability issues, etc. The new year is upon us.

[Brian Swartz]

** March 9 -- The rich get richer as Garuda Racing debuts a Test Track at their HQ. They are now up to 'Poor' in their headquarters assessment, and clearly better than even Dragon Race Team China.

** March 14 -- Suspension finished. We need a little more money to go on with another round.

** March 16 -- Ines Santa Ana is training for a pilot's license. For the next few months she'll be more marketable ... but less focused. Not good news for us. Also we sign a final sponsor deal: Carne Blanco($200k up front, $200k per race for 10). That boosts our expected profit to a little over a million per race, without bonuses.

Speaking of which, it's time to go embarass ourselves at the Black Sea. The projection is for Santa Ana to finish 19th, Liao 20th. Surprised that she's put ahead of him ... but she does have slightly better parts right now.

With Liao's much-better feedback, practice was improved, particularly in terms of data for the race(race trim). Sergey Antonov(1:18.415) took first. Hong Liao(+3.864) was 18th, Ines Santa Ana(+4.012) 19th, just ahead of Alex Rogers.

Race day began with a downpour. This is the Black Sea, after all. It figured to stop pretty soon though, so we start on intermediates and a fairly low tank. The conventional wisdom was wets here. Hong Liao started 4th, Ines Santa Ana 12th, by luck of the draw. Pretty positive odds there, and Liao had a chance to at least stick close to the front.

Liao was out in front by 10 seconds, and Santa Ana up to 10th, when it really started getting wet in the third lap. A lap later, Lisandro Cruz took the lead while Gerard and Cavalcanti collided, and Santa Ana was back to last. Wild swings with everyone else on wets.

** Lap 6 -- 17th and 18th on a soaked track, everyone's going faster ... but the rain has stopped so things will swing back our way. Then pretty much everyone stops, which might have been as good a strategy to follow with how slow the track is. Dunno. We come out of it 8th and 17th, and a stop behind the rest. Definitely don't think we won anything there.

** Lap 10 -- 10th and 17th, and we need new tires. Gotta stay on inters with the rain returning soon. We've been pushing too hard as well, forgetting how fragile our parts are. Time for some fixes and a more relaxed pace, at least from Liao. Santa Ana gets stacked up for a long time behind him in the pits -- it's been way too long since I ran a race, and boy can you tell. I am screwing this up royally.

Out 18th and 20th, and completely lost any edge we might have had earlier. Sigh. I also discover that I managed to make Ines's car significantly worse(down to 88%) with race-day adjustments.

** Lap 15 -- Already starting to see cars with mechanical issues, so I'm hoping we can take advantage of that. Everyone and their monkey's uncle is lapping us already, as well ...

** Lap 21 -- 18th and 20th, almost midway there, and time to stop again. Cruz, Braunlich, and Diaz are the top three ... all drivers that weren't even in the ERS last year. Looks like the rain is done so this will be a short stint. For some reason Liao doesn't get new tires and he has to come back in. What a cluster ...

** Lap 28 -- Time for dry tires. The rest of the races was just a slog; in and out, hoping to pick up a spot or two past struggling opponents.

** Lap 43 -- Eduardo Melo retires.


Race Results

1. Lisandro Cruz(Garuda Racing) -- 65:14.499
2. Michelle Hawkins(Ozu Motor Team) -- +62.979
3. Oscar Diaz(Firebird MRT) -- +80.671

Only three cars on the lead lap, as Cruz won this going away.

18. Hong Liao(Predator Racing Group) -- +3 LAPS
19. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- +3 LAPS

It's honestly hard to know where we are after this, since we gave so much time away. Certainly wasn't encouraging though. Best laps were competitive with the slowest few drivers, so we might have something if we can clean up this nonsense. Definitely a race to forget about.

Garuda Racing holds a 1-point edge over Ozu Motor Team, 37-36, with Firebird MRT and Octane Racing way back at 24.

[Brian Swartz]

** March 20 -- Plenty of money to get going on more suspension design.

** March 22 -- ZRT Autosport opens up a new Staff Centre.

** March 29 -- 2nd suspension finished, time for a 3rd.

** March 30 -- Well, this sucks. Cooling system leak in Ines Santa Ana's engine. Reliability will be destroyed without it. We don't have the money, but will go a bit into the red here ... no choice. Hopefully this doesn't annoy the chairman too much.

** April 6 -- Ozu Motor Team debuts a Handling Development Centre.

** April 7 -- Suspension completed. That's all the preliminaries. We're ready to build a couple of premium models, which will require $1M each and nearly three weeks as well. Since we're $208k in the hole at the moment, we need some cash first.

** April 13: Munich. Hong Liao is projected 19th, Ines Santa Ana 20th. Reversal for those two but otherwhise as expected. Lisandro Cruz(1:33.247) delights Garuda by getting the fastest practice time. We bring up the rear again; Santa Ana is 4.35s behind, Liao 4.83.

#1 had a fairly good setup by the end of practice and we'll stick with that: #2 wasn't there yet again. A little stiffer in the turns should help, but we need to do a better job of getting that ready in practice. Ines Santa Ana starts 13th, Hong Liao 16th. This time the draw was against us. 15th and 19th after one lap as both drivers do their best, but slowly drop back despite it.

** Lap 4 -- Santa Ana's settled in at 16th, Liao is 20th -- gotta be more cautious with him due to mechanic differences.

** Lap 5 -- Time to back off on the tires some with the temp reading up to 69. Antonov is given a penalty for running into Melo.

** Lap 10 -- Santa Ana crashes into the sand early in the lap. She's done for the race. That's ... not what I was looking for. Liao comes in and goes out 17th, could have picked up a couple spots but the refueling was botched.

** Lap 13 -- Down to last(19th) midway through the first green lap, Hong Liao knows there's no point in pushing it. He'll try to finish solid, minimize repairs, etc. A third of the way through a couple parts are already showing significant wear. Let the others burn themselves out.

** Lap 22 -- Hawkins, Diaz, Vanaanen are the top three at the halfway point. For his part, Liao is doing surprisingly well keeping up with the pack at the rear, currently in 18th. Looks like he has a chance to be competitive with some of the slower traffic. If the pits go ok, that is.

** Lap 23 -- Suspension starting to vibrate. Hopefully we can get a few more laps, preferably five, out of it so we can pit once and do repairs.

** Lap 27 -- Now it's really looking dodgy, but it was time to come in anyway. Suspension, gearbox, and front wing all need work. Engine and brakes aren't winning any awards either, but it looks like they'll be able to finish this.

47 seconds almost on the button, and another refueling screwup contributed to that a bit. Liao's out in 18th and a lap down. Arbeloa soon goes by to make it 19th. Hopefully we can at least stay close to somebody through the finish ... From there it was a matter of just trying to finish on the same lap with as many opponents as possible, and try not to break the car.

** Lap 41 -- Three to go and the brakes are in serious trouble. Nothing really to lose at this point by staying out though.


Race Results

1. Michele Hawkins(Ozu Motor Team) -- 73:18.618
2. Lisandro Cruz(Garuda Racing) -- +16.803
3. Ebony Tyler(Dragon Race Team China) -- +44.487

Tyler ran back in the pack at the beginning; great finish for her and Dragon.

19. Hong Liao(Predator Racing Group) -- +1 LAP
20. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- CRASHED

1 Lap is better than 3. On the other hand, more of the same with about 47 seconds separating us from the minimal sponsor position of 16th. Best lap was 1.5 seconds behind the field. Just a case of not being fast enough, and that's down to the car not being competitive yet mostly. Chalk up another season of finishing at the back for Predator, as we continue to lay the foundation for better things.


Driver Standings(2 of 11 events)

1. Lisandro Cruz(Garuda Racing) -- 41 pts
2. Michelle Hawkins(Ozu Motor Team) -- 39
3. Oscar Diaz(Firebird MRT) -- 34
3. Jonas Braunlich(Ozu Motor Team) -- 34
5. Ebony Tyler(Dragon Race Team China) -- 32

19. Hong Liao(Predator Racing Group) -- 5
20. Ines Santa Ana(Predator Racing Group) -- 3


Team Standings

1. Ozu Motor Team -- 73
2. Garuda Racing -- 68
3. Firebird MRT -- 51

10. Predator Racing Group -- 8

It's sure shaping up as a two-team race between Ozu and Garuda so far.

After the race, we've got $860k, a little short of what we need for the suspensions ... but that's temporary, as there are three open sponsor slots now. We'll have some new offers and get to work soon.

[Brian Swartz]

** April 17 -- Garuda Racing has upgraded their Telemetry Centre. Most ERS teams don't even have one.

** April 20 -- Offer in from HX Telecoms: $350k up front, $150k per race for 7. We could get a better one, but I doubt it. They are a below-average sponsor, which we got none of last year. Work starts on our first premium suspension.

** April 23 -- More sponsor offers are in. For one we take Gustavo Cruises(**), $800k + $400k if we finish 10th or above in the next 4 races. We won't, but that's still a nice payment right now. Beats any of the others by far. Next one is right up the same alley. $1.25M from Northern Harbour(**), with $880k more per race for getting 2nd. Now we're sitting at $2.26M, plenty to fund the next couple of rounds of part development. Getting the ** sponsors instead of the crappy ones we had last year is already a major boost for Predator. By themselves, these contracts are likely to more than make up the extra we are paying Liao. He's bringing in most of them.

** April 25 -- Factory upgrade completed! This is huge. It will knock our race-day profits a bit, but we're still over $1M per. More importantly, we can get a lot more done in terms of performance and reliability improvements, with twice the factory staff and twice the number of parts we can work on at once.

Our Factory ranking is up to 5th in the ERS, and overall HQ up to 6th.

** May 2 -- Reserve driver Katie Linares has taken up drift racing. I basically don't care, but this should be a bit of a positive to her marketability, which can't hurt.

** May 3 -- First GMA vote is up; a proposed new event at Cape Town. There are a couple of votes later in the season that are more important for us, so I abstain. Nobody else does, and it's defeated 5-4. Anybody switching would've changed the result.

** May 4 -- Off to Milan, where it's supposed to rain on race day. Let's go for 'don't crash' as a goal here.

Before that though, I'm finally going to get off my duff and do the promised 'tour'.

[Brian Swartz]

Predator Racing Group Tour, Part I

This is going to be an image-heavy post. I resized them to only 75% the normal size horizontally and vertically to make things saner for those will smaller resolutions, but other than that I'm not taking anything out. This will cover the between-races stuff, then I'll do another one for the race weekend in Milan including the 2D view.




I think the Motorsport Manager interface is quite frankly nearly a work of art. There's a persistent top and bottom bar. Across the top:

** Team name on the left(Predator)
** Currently selected screen(Home)
** Financial Balance
** Standings
** Next Race
** GMA Voting
** Save/load/etc. menu.

All of these drop-down with more information if you mouse-over, but it's basically a way to get to anything. At the bottom, each section corresponds to various screens used to navigate around the base, most of which I'll show. The date on the right brings up a calendar of what will happen in the next week, and 'Continue' rather self-evidently advances time, usually a couple seconds or so per day.

There's multiple ways to get to just about everything in the game, but from here you can look deeper at drivers, mechanics, standings, etc. So that's the basics, time for the tour to roll on.




This is the 'Player' screen. Personal details basically. Haven't mentioned this so far because I don't pay much attention to it, but there are the three basic ratings for myself as well in the top middle. Hard to screw up Race Management when there's no expectations, Financial is about making a profit, and Loyalty relates to how often you terminate staff in the middle of a contract. It's not hard to improve these as long as you don't go off the deep end and fire half the staff or drastically overspend.




On the 'Car' screen, portal to all the mechanical stuff. This is where a lot of stuff happens in-between races during the season. The 'Car Stats' in the upper right show the relative rankings. The triangular arrows represent the average team in your tier, with the bottom and top representing the best and worst. I regularly check in on changes here because as I've said, if your car isn't competitive, the team can't be either. This shows graphically how we're last in everything else but at least the suspension is coming along.

The three boxes down below are worth looking into a little more. In the middle, 'Fit Parts' is pretty self-explanatory: deciding which parts to use on the cars during races.




This is 'Part Design'. So far as I can tell, the components you can choose are based on a combination of a random factor and the improvability of your chassis. The # of slots that can be utilized are limited at first, and to use the main great, good, and legendary ones you need upgrades at the HQ. In addition to the skill of your designer(which adds directly to the performance of newly designed parts) they also sometimes have their own components which cost no more time or money. One good thing about Charlotte Williams is the ability to use her -1 day build time component to do the early designs on a part faster. Once you get to this point, which is a 'peak suspension' for this year, it's all about maxing out the performance though. The reliability hit hurts here but that can eventually be improved in the factory; this is a major improvement over what we have now as the blue bar shows. The process here is sort of a logical mini-game to get a couple of maxed-out parts done as quickly and inexpensively as possible.




This is the 'Part Improvement' section. The inside of the factory, basically. Which parts to work on are selected on the left, with space, mechanics, and general factory staff allocated on the right. Before the recent factory upgrade was finished, we only had 2 parts for each section instead of 4 as the max capacity, and staff was 10 instead of 20. Progress has seen a major acceleration since then, and it was sorely needed. How high reliability needs to be to make it through a race depends on your aggressiveness in terms of tactics, abilities of driver and mechanic, the rules of each racing series, etc. but rule of thumb is at least 70%. Based on how things went the first year I'm aiming for more along the lines of 80-85% this year, then effort shifts into performance gains once stuff isn't breaking down all the time. Reliability early in the season, performance later is vital though.




Here's the 'Headquarters', or the team's base and physical center of operations. This view can be rotated to various angles; I've selected the recently upgraded factory here. All we have is that and the basic design centre. This is where new buildings are built or existing ones upgraded. We also have an overview of how we compare to other teams. We've got a full green bar in the factory category now: ours is as good as anybody's. Of course we're still bad at everything else. Also important to note is the part knowledge below that. We can only build 'Good' or inferior parts until we have the required support facilities here.




This is the 'Team' view. Good for an at-a-glance look at a little of everything. The team stats in the upper right is what I use this for the most. All five of the categories matter, though sponsors varies quite a bit. I find that one the easiest to be competitive in. The others all take quite a bit of investment, and you know where Predator ranks. For the time being.




'Drivers' shows, as you might expect, a synopsis of info on the team's drivers for comparison. You can drill down into an individual screen with more on each of them individually, but here I've just used the mouse-over to show Liao's stats.

The 'Staff' screen would be a bit redundant to add, but is quite similar with info on the Lead Designer and Race Mechanics. Scouting is pretty self-explanatory and is where looking up new staff to hire and scouting drivers happens. All staff has not just ratings but also specific traits that impact how valuable they are, marketability can be important for drivers, etc.




'Contract Negotiation' is one of those areas that is obviously inspired quite a bit by FM. Everybody has at least wages as contract length, often bonus terms are used as well. For each of the dollar amounts the default here is the lowest of 11 amounts you can choose(via the +). After a week or two you'll get feedback from the prospective employee, and be able to try again if they aren't happy enough with the offer. That is, unless you've exhausted the Xs on the Patience display. In that case, they'll simply refuse to negotiate with you for some months. Some won't even enter negotiations, for various reasons: they want a higher level of competition, your reputation in terms of Loyalty can cause it as well, they've recently signed a contract elsewhere, etc.




'Finances' breaks down where all the money comes from and where it goes. It's vital not to overspend; it's quite possible to invest so much in the HQ and staff that it's difficult or even impossible to turn a profit. Here I've highlighted the difference between the barebones Design Centre and the upgraded Factory expenses.




The 'Calendar' shows information about all of the races during the season. This is vital in planning out what to work on between races.




'Standings' is pretty self-evident. Everything you need to know about how the various teams and drivers are doing so far in the competition.

[Brian Swartz]

FYI, I'm abandoning this due to the latest patch., That's not a slam on the devs, they just keep breaking the AI(and eventually fixing it, while improving a bunch of other stuff). Latest thing that happened was a number of drivers staying out on inters waiting for the weather to change for a few laps ... and losing over 20s each in the process. I had a bunch of race-weekend pics -- but anyone who is really interested in that stuff can probably just head to youtube and watch one of the many let's plays. Just as well, I've got other projects to suck up my time.