Motorsport Manager: The Underdog Challenge (Predator Racing Group)

[NoSkillz]

I've never been a car racing fan but the great reviews of Motorsport Manager that just so happened to coincide with getting a new gaming rig prompted me to make the purchase and dive in.

I'm glad I did. It's a beautiful looking, highly polished game already and the tutorial was very helpful while not giving away all of the game's secrets.

I feel ready to start an actual career and similar to my FM dynasty where I started way down in the lowest playable level, I've decided to take on "The Underdog Challenge" in Motorsport Manager, where you take the lowest rated team in the game, Predator Racing Group, from the third tier European Racing Series all the way to the top of the first tier World Motorsport Championship.

Challenge Objective: Win the World Motorsport Championship with Predator Racing Group
Restrictions: You cannot leave the team

I'm sure many of those here at FOFC are taking on the same challenge so come back often to laugh about how much better you're doing than me! Or perhaps we can learn about the game together and share tips for setting cars up, talk about different race, tire and fuel strategies, etc.

Our first step? How about we take a deep look at Predator Racing Group and the challenge that lies ahead...

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group is headquartered in Australia and our chairman is 34 year old Aussie native Darren Luff.

Here are some key numbers worth looking at as we begin our quest to move up in this racing world:

Team Worth: 77 million pounds
Fan Base: 700,000
Marketability: 16.3%
Total Staff: 20

My guess on the breakdown of my staff is as follows: we have a chairman (Darren Luff), a team principal (that's me!), three drivers, a lead designer, two chief race mechanics, ten other garage mechanics, a scout and an assistant.

A quick overview of our rankings within the European Racing Series reinforces the challenge ahead, as our cars, drivers, staff and sponsors are all rated last in the series, with only our team headquarters being ranked higher (8th out of 10 teams).

As for me, I'm a 42 year old ex-driver from Canada going into management for the first time and Predator Racing fans are optimistic but slightly skeptical of my hiring. That said, the team's drivers love that I've come on board and that brings a +20 morale boost to the three drivers on staff.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - TEAM HEADQUARTERS

Our team headquarters are ranked 8th out of the 10 teams in the European Racing Series but it's a pretty barren compound we have in Australia, with only a Factory (Level 1) and a Design Centre (Level 1) right now. The cost of upgrading those facilities would cost us £8 million and that's simply money we don't have right now.

We also have the ability to build three new complexes at the moment: a Forecasting Centre, a Scouting Facility and a Staff Centre. The cheapest of those three would be the Scouting Facility at £2.2 million and again, that's just not an option at this point in time, nor would it be wise to allocate money to that type of infrastructure in our current situation.

There is a headquarters-specific set of rankings and we're okay relative to our competitors in the ERS:

Design: 7th (out of 10)
Factory: 8th
Performance: 7th
Staff: 7th
Staff and Brand: 7th

Obviously, I'd like to eventually make improvements to our facilities but our main concern at this time is our cars and the lack of talent behind the wheel.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - CARS

Simply put, our two cars are an embarrassment.

The positive is that our chassis make up is pretty decent, with a Tyre Wear rating of 2/5, a Tyre Heating rating of 4/5, a Fuel Efficiency rating of 4/5 and an Improvability rating of 3/5.

But the cars themselves? Woof!

CAR #1 -
Brakes: 2/35
Engine: 5/17
Front Wing: 150/150 (SPEC PART)
Gearbox: 14/41
Rear Wing: 150/150 (SPEC PART)
Suspension: 19/34

CAR #2 -
Brakes: 1/22
Engine: 3/18
Front Wing: 150/150
Gearbox: 11/29
Rear Wing: 150/150
Suspension: 19/28

To sum up, we have the worst cars in every category in the entire series. I'll get to our budget and financial situation in a bit but it will be very tough making substantial improvements in our first year as it stands right now but this MUST be our primary focus with any money we have available.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - DRIVERS

Alright, lets see if things get any better behind the wheel...

MAIN DRIVER -
Ines Santa Ana - 23 Years Old, Female, Argentina, 2 stars (out of 5)
Contract: £167,000 per race, 34 months remaining

Ines is in her first year in the Global Motorsport Association (which oversees the rules for all three tiers within this racing world) and is undoubtedly the best option we have behind the wheel at the moment.

She has below average to average ratings across the board: Braking 10, Cornering 5, Smoothness 7, Overtaking 10, Consistency 10, Adaptability 6, Fitness 9, Feedback 8 and Focus 8. Not too bad! She also has a couple of specific personality traits that my assistant tells me about - she's a grounded individual and loves going to the pub with the guys in the shop, which comes with a +15 point bonus in the relationship with her chief mechanic. Unfortunately, a negative is that she "hates dueling" and that means if she's in a dogfight with one car in tight spaces, she loses one full point off all her attributes during those tense moments.

Her marketability rating is very low (2%) so she obviously isn't charismatic and my chief scout says she is a below average European Racing series driver with good potential (19th place predicted finish).

MAIN DRIVER -
William Evans - 27 years old, Male, Australia, 1 star (out of 5)
Contract: £46,000 per race, 22 Months remaining

You're wondering where that foul stench in the air is coming from? Well, I present William Evans, our second main driver. Yes, we have two main drivers, as both he and Ines Santa Ana have "equal status" stipulations in their contracts.

Evans is entering his ninth season here at Predator and in his 8 previous seasons, he's raced 80 times and has never been on the podium. Ouch.

His racing attributes are something to behold: Braking 2, Cornering 6, Smoothness 3, Overtaking 0 (!!!), Consistency 3, Adaptability 4, Fitness 5, Feedback 2 and Focus 1. Our assistant gives us a tad bit of good news by saying that Evans is unquestionably a team player, which comes with 10 point bonuses for his Mechanic Relationship, Teammate Morale and Chairman Happiness. However, nullifying all that is the fact that Evans is "Action Averse", which would normally subtract 2 points off his Overtaking ability but HE'S ALREADY RATED A ZERO! Oh, and he's also a "Wet Weather Struggler" so all of his attributes see yet another 2 point decline when the track is wet.

This guy is a race car driver?!?!

Social media tells me he's a good looking dude at least, giving him a 27% marketability rating but my scout summarizes his capabilities by saying he is one of the weakest drivers on circuit (20th place predicted finish) but does have some potential to improve.

Boy oh boy. I'll wait to see him in action but this doesn't look promising. Hopefully, our reserve driver is decent...

RESERVE DRIVER -
Katie Linares - 20 years old, Female, Australia, 1 star (out of 5)
Contract: £44,000 per race, 10 months remaining

Like Ines Santa Ana, Linares is entering her first year of racing within the association but unfortunately, her ratings look eerily similar to those of William Evans: Braking 3, Cornering 2, Smoothness 2, Overtaking 1, Consistency 1, Adaptability 4, Fitness 9, Feedback 5 and Focus 1.

My assistant tells me she is content in her role as a reserve with the team and that provides a 30 point morale boost along with the perk that she'll likely request a salary close to 100,000 less than a similarly skilled driver would ask. Yeah, I'm not sure that's enough enticement to extend your deal, sweetheart!

She has limited marketability (16%) and my chief scout says she's a low-quality driver with little potential to improve.

Sigh.

Well, Santa Ana looks like she'll be decent but might be better suited to being a second driver as opposed to our best hope. Speaking of hope, I have very little of it for our second main driver, William Evans or our reserve driver Katie Linares. I'll wait to see them in action before over-reacting but I have a feeling I'll soon be in the market for a better driver.

Next, we'll take a brief look at our key staff members...

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - KEY STAFF

LEAD DESIGNER -
Charlotte Williams, 28 years old, Female, Australia, 1 star (out of 5)
Contract: £10,000 per race, 34 months remaining

Williams, at the tender age of 28, is already heading into her 10th year with the Predator Racing Group and has actually amassed 2 wins and 9 podium finishes in her 90 races as part of the team, the first bit of historical success I've seen from our group.

Unfortunately, she looks to be a very mediocre designer, with ratings of Engine 5, Brakes 0, Gearbox 4, Front Wing 4, Suspension 6 and Rear Wing 1. Also, there doesn't look to be much potential for her to improve her skills either.

RACE MECHANIC (for Ines Santa Ana) -
Tom Woodbridge 26 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 1 1/2 stars (out of 5)
Contract: £19,000 per race, 46 months remaining

Woodbridge is entering his 6th year with Predator Racing but has no wins or podium finishes in his previous 50 races. He's a below average mechanic but has some redeemable qualities: Concentration 4, Part Fixes 3, Pit Stops 10, Reliability 2, Chemistry 12 and Performance 4. He's worked a little over a full year (57 weeks) with Ines Santa Ana and is a Level 1 Engine Expert. He doesn't look like he will improve much upon his abilities.

RACE MECHANIC (for William Evans) -
Oscar Deveritt, 25 years old, Male, Denmark, 1 star (out of 5)
Contract: £15,000 per race, 34 months remaining

Deveritt enters his fifth year with our team and has no podium finishes or wins in his 40 previous races. His ratings are all well below average: Concentration 7, Part Fixes 2, Pit Stops 3, Reliability 3, Chemistry 5 and Performance 8. He's worked 48 weeks with William Evans as his chief mechanic and has Level 1 "Sweet Spots" (Qualifying bonus for optimizing setups. Like his fellow chief mechanic, Deveritt has very little potential to improve.

Things look a bit ugly in the shop and in the pits, as you can see! At the very least, I'd like to start looking for a new lead designer and at least one new race mechanic with better skills.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - FINANCES AND CHAIRMAN TARGETS FOR 2016

Things look pretty bleak here...

Available Budget to start: £250,000
Income per race to start: +£638,000

So we have limited money banked to start but will make decent profits each race based on our current situation. Breaking the numbers down, I see we are allocating £700,000 per race to next year's car, £257,000 to our three drivers, £34,000 to our race mechanics, £10,000 to our lead designer, £40,000 for HQ Upkeep & Staff and £70,000 for travel costs.

Offsetting those costs is our per race income of £1.549 million in the form of Chairman payments and an additional £200,000 per race from our one official fixed payment sponsor, Carne Blanco from Argentina. We also have one other sponsor on board currently in Rogerson Ales out of the UK. There are no guarantees whatsoever with this sponsor, something that irritates me to no end but they will pay us £200,000 for any finish above 16th place. That agreement is only in place for another two races. This means we still have two sponsor slots open on the "bonus" side and two sponsor slots open on the "fixed payment" side. I'll soon look to fill those spots on the car in order to get some more money rolling in.

The one move I make right away is to up our budget for next year's car to £1 million instead of only £700,000. I think that's pretty necessary at this point!

Therefore, therefore our income per race tentatively drops to £338,000.

I meet with our chairman and he gives me a couple of options as far as targets and budget:

- maintain our current budget and have no expecations of finishing better than last place in the team standings
- add an additional £300,000 per week to the budget through chairman's investments but it will come with an expecation of finishing 8th or better in the team standings

I don't really take much time on this one and opt for the conservative approach of working with the budget already implemented and having no expectations in year one, other than showing constant improvement with our drivers, our cars and our staff.

Lets get on with the season!

[NoSkillz]

European Racing Series - OVERVIEW

So as indicated, we are starting off in the European Racing Series, which is a Tier 3 competition within the Global Motorsport Association. The ERS is essentially a training ground for future Asia-Pacific Supercup racers and perhaps eventually, the World Motorsport Championship, the pinnacle of the sport.

The ERS features 10 races at six unique European venues, with repeat visits featuring a different track configuration. The prize fund in 2016 is a whopping £125,000,000 and the series has an estimated world-wide TV Audience of 40 million...impressive!

Set car specifications include a 1.6 litre V6 engine, a car weight of 630 kgs, a top speed of 181mph, a max 0-60mph speed of 3.1 seconds and finally, as indicated previously, all cars in the series used Spec front and rear wings to bring down costs.

There are ten teams fighting for the constructors championship in the ERS in 2016. Here's a brief look at our nine opponents:

ZRT Autosport, United States, 1 star out of five (Expected Finish: 9th)
- American racing team ZRT have made a final, desperate bet on a young, spoiled and talented driver named Sergio Valdes to carry the team this season. Pundits wonder if he can be groomed to be the champion they need or will he prove to be the final nail in ZRT's coffin?
- Main Drivers: Sergio Valdes, 20, Spain (0 career races) and Aurelie Dembele, 33, France (90 races, 4 podiums, 1 win); Reserve Driver: Cerys Young, 30, United States (0 career races)

Archer BMR, United Kingdom, 1 star (Expected finish: 8th)
- Archer BMR have a well-balanced team, combinging new, young talent with experienced pros. This team is on the rise and pundits feel that if there was any year for Archer BMR to win, this could be it.
- Main Drivers: Mustafa El Sadat, 23, Egypt (10 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Alex Rogers, 34, United Kingdom (110 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Peter Young, 31, United Kingdom (0 career races)

Dragon Race Team China, China, 1 star (Expected finish: 7th)
- Dragon are a well-funded outfit who receive much of their money from their pay driver, Bao Tang. While he may not be an elite talent, the money he brings to the table enables Dragon to make the necessary adjustments to improve team positions.
- Main Drivers: Bao Tang, 24, China (10 races, 1 podium, 0 wins) and Nick Chu, 18, Thailand (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Hong Liao, 17, China (0 career races)

Octane Racing, Canada, 1 star (Expected finish: 6th)
- Octane are well known for hiring some of the best talent from across the globe to create a team that gets results. There is solid team chemistry here and everyone knows their place in the squad.
- Main Drivers: Luigi Marchetta, 32, Italy (120 races, 15 podiums, 1 win) and Claudia Dreyfuss, 18, Germany (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Adrian Earle, 29, United Kingdom (0 career races)

Vexala Motorsport, Finland, 1 star (Expected finish: 5th)
- Vexala haven't been the same ever since their previous team principal left. He was a legendary boss who was an inspiration and guiding force for the team. The squad has struggled since his departure and morale is currently low. Interestingly enough, Vexala's top driver, Sergey Antonov, just left our team after three years as our main driver, where he had two podium finishes but no victories.
- Main Drivers: Sergey Antonov, 31, Russia (110 races, 17 podiums, 4 wins) and Merja Vaananen, 29, Finland (50 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Simone Santore, 24, Italy (0 career races)

Silva Racing, Brazil, 1 star (Expected finish: 4th)
- Marcelo Silva has built the team from the ground up to find and acquire the best up and coming talent. Now Silva is finally ready to unleash his team onto the ERS but big talent comes with big egos...
- Main Drivers: Eduardo Melo, 23, Brazil (30 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Amanda Cavalcanti, 20, Brazil (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Bruno Cabral, 17, Portugal (0 career races)

Firebird MRT, Russia, 1 star (Expected finish: 3rd)
- Firebird survive on a feast or famine mentality and take big risks to stay on top, suffering the consequences later. They have a demanding set of sponsors that want top finishes to acheive bonuses so the gung-ho style will likely continue.
- Main Drivers: Andre Sabado, 31, Brazil (69 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Jean-Pierre Gerard, 24, France (20 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Christian West, 22, United Kingdom (0 career races)

Eastwood Motorsport, United Kingdom, 1.5 stars (Expected finish: 2nd)
- A strong, reliable team with great financial backing. The staff have World Motorsport Championship experience and are hoping to boost the team up to the Asia Super Cup next season.
- Main Drivers: Sergio Arbeloa, 24, Spain (30 races, 5 podiums, 0 wins) and Edda Jonsdottir, 21, Iceland (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Shen Qi, 18, China (0 career races)

Garuda Racing, India, 1.5 stars (Expected finish: 1st)
- The good times can't last forever at Garuda: a fantastic team who unfortunately haven't put enough thought into investing in younger drivers or staff. That said, their two veteran drivers have dominated the ERS for years and Jha is the most decorated racer on the circuit, with an incredible 63 wins in his 19 seasons!
- Main Drivers: Jean-Francois Beauchamp, 41, Canada (200 races, 45 podiums, 15 wins) and Tanvir Jha, 39, India (190 races, 100 podiums, 63 wins); Reserve Driver: Valerie Yao, 34, Singapore (0 career races)

[NoSkillz]

RACE ONE: Black Sea Grand Prix, Russia (March 17, 2016)

Track Layout F
Track Guide - Top Speed, Acceleration and High Speed Corners all Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 45 (2.6 miles each)
Tyres Available - Supersoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Overcast)


We have three weeks to prepare for our first race in Russia. We obviously have weaknesses everywhere so I start by scouting three reserve drivers who have small "break contract" costs and have lower morale, indicating they may be willing to move to a different team.

I also place contract offers for a new lead designer and a new race mechanic, both of whom are currently unemployed.

We begin work on our car, designing new brakes (£500k) and improving our existing brakes and the reliability of our gearbox.

On the financial front, I accept a deal with Wan Chai Industries from China for a second bonus sponsor: £750,000 upfront payment and £450,000 bonus for 9th place finish or above (8 races). We also welcome Peach-Plum out of New Zealand as a fixed payment sponsor: £0 upfront, £350,000 per race for 9 races. That leaves us with one open Racing Bonus slot on our car.

We head into practice, utilizing our top driver, Ines Santa Ana and reserve driver Katie Linares, as my assistant tells me she's much better at providing feedback than our other main driver, William Evans. We have some issues getting Santa Ana's car setup to her satisfaction (around 85%) but Linares is happy with the setup of our second car (+90%). Santa Ana and Linares don't exactly burn up the track in practice and their fastest lap times in practice are near the bottom of the field.

Race day arrives on March 17th and we have William Evans on the pole and Ines Santa Ana starts 9th - the European Racing Series doesn't have qualifying and instead uses a reverse grid system based on team standings. Our sponsor target is to finish 16th or above in order to get a modest £200,000

Evans quickly falls back early in the race and I realize that my scout was correct in his assessment that this guy isn't cut out for racing. I decide to use him strategically to block opposing drivers in an attempt to clear space for Santa Ana and this strategy actually works for awhile. Santa Ana runs mid-pack for the majority of the race and gets as high as 5th but her car just isn't very strong and we need to make extensive repairs during two pit stops, including a crushing late pit in the last two laps of the race, which ultimately dropped her back to 18th on the grid, two full laps behind the eventual winner, the legendary Tanvir Jha, who wins for the 64th time in his hall of fame career. William Evans has little talent but his car is so bad it's hard to really criticize him. He finishes in 19th place, a full four laps behind Jha and the only reason he doesn't finish last is because Luigi Marchetta had his car break down with only five laps remaining. Former Predator Racing driver Sergey Antonov finishes second and also reaching the podium is Jha's teammate Jean-Francois Beauchamp. Jha has the race's fastest lap, which gives him a two point bonus.

Our 17th and 18th place finishes fall below our sponsor's target of 16th or better so we earn no bonuses in race one. I realize that I'm going to really have to work on my pit strategy a bit more and obviously, our cars need plenty of work.

March 17, 2016
Black Sea Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 45 Laps, 22 Points
2. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 45 Laps, +20.781, 19 Points
3. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 45 Laps, +29.750, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Sergio Arbeloa, Eastwood Motorsport, 45 Laps, +54.625, 17 Points
5. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 45 Laps, +62.062, 16 Points

18. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 43 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 3 Points
19. William Evans, Predator Racing Group, 41 Laps, (+4 LAPS), 2 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE TWO: Munich Grand Prix, Germany (April 14, 2016)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Acceleration, Low Speed Corners and Medium Speed Corners all Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (very low)
Laps - 43 (2.72 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Rain)


We have close to four weeks to prepare for our next race. After a day of making general repairs needed post-race, we get our lead designer working on a new engine. The engine we decide on carries a slight risk of breaking the rules but we need all the help we can get so I authorize the design team to go forward on it. Our race mechanics also continue their work improving parts and reliability on our top car.

We get word back on the three reserve drivers we were scouting and one looks to be very intriguing: 18 year old Shen Qi, a Chinese driver with Eastwood Motorsport. My scout considers her to be a "Wonderkid" and I immediately try to begin contract negotiations to bring her to Predator. However, she indicates that she just recently signed a new deal and isn't interested in coming on board with us, even though I would have given her a chance to race right away. The other two drivers we scouted weren't good enough to be main drivers so I begin scouting a few younger unemployed drivers to see if there is a proper fit.

Negotiations continue during this period with potential new lead designers and race mechanics. I'm delighted to report that on April 1st, we hired a brand new free agent lead designer in British born Braylen Stockwell, a 3 star rated designer for £325,000 per race. Ouch!! That's a lot of coin for 21 months! He has ratings of Engine 10, Brakes 19, Gearbox 9, Front Wing 18, Suspension 19, Rear Wing 3. This is his first job in the GMA and we sack former lead designer Charlotte Williams, who was only earning £10k per race. Talk about investing highly in design!

A week later, the Global Motorsport Association conducts it's first vote for all ERS principals, proposing that we replace the Tondela Grand Prix with an event in Beijing in 2017. I'm ambivalent about this so I abstain from voting and ultimately, the vote is rejected by a 3-2 margin with 5 absentions.

Once again, we head into practice with Ines Santa Ana and reserve Katie Linares doing the driving. The forecast indicates rain so we bring out some inters for use during practice and we do a much better job setting up Santa Ana's car, giving me a bit of hope leading into the race.

Race day arrives on April 14th and we have William Evans in the front row in the #2 position and Ines Santa Ana starts 3rd in row two, again based on the current standings. Once again, we bring Rogerson Ales to be our raceday sponsor, with our target being a 16th place finish or better in order to earn £200,000.

Evans is stronger running up front but that is negated by the fact he struggles severely in wet conditions and as such, he quickly falls back into the pack and is never a factor in this race. Ines Santa Ana roars past him early and shows great progress in her second career race, leading for a few laps and sitting in the top five for much of the first half of the race. However, a Jean-Pierre Gerard crash on lap nine negates her early race advantage and on the restart, some of the stronger cars were able to burst past her and force her back into the middle of the pack. Her car once again started breaking down and we were forced into a couple of long pit stops, something she couldn't recover from. Ultimately, Santa Ana finishes in 15th which was enough to satisfy our sponsor's target demand and earn us an extra £200,000! As for William Evans, he finished in 18th, ahead of only Gerard, who crashed and Sergio Valdes, who had to retire due to car trouble on lap 26. Garuda Racing wins for the second race in a row, with Jean-Francois Beauchamp winning this time, with a 15 second advantage over second placed Luigi Marchetta from Octane Racing. Also making the podium was Mustafa El Sadat from Archer BMR. Beauchamp also had the fastest lap to gain an extra two points. Black Sea GP champ Tanvir Jha finishes fifth.

I'm happy we achieve a sponsor's bonus in our second race and showed some improvement. Hopefully we're on the right track!

April 14, 2016
Munich Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 43 Laps, 22 Points
2. Luigi Marchetta, Octane Racing, 43 Laps, +15.312, 19 Points
3. Mustafa El Sadat, Archer BMR, 43 Laps, +52.687, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 43 Laps, +53.187, 17 Points
5. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 43 Laps, +53.500, 16 Points

15. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 42 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 6 Points

18. William Evans, Predator Racing Group, 41 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 3 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE THREE: Milan Grand Prix, Italy (May 12, 2016)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners all Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 31 (3.72 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Rain); Race Day (Rain)


Once again, we have about four weeks to prepare for our next race, which will take place in Italy. After handling the post-race repairs, my new lead designer gets to work on building a new gearbox for our #1 car, a part that has been very problematic in our first two races. Other part improvements and reliability improvements continue as well.

We get a funny notice from the media, indicating that driver William Evans was out partying hard before the last race and he's now earned a "clubgoer" temporary driver trait which improves his marketability by 5 points. Ha.

Our sponsorship agreement with Rogerson Ales comes to an end, opening up a spot for an additonal race bonus sponsor. We sign on with RussJet Airways out of Russia, as they give us a cool £1 million as an upfront payment and will offer £75,000 for any race they sponsor where we finish 16th or better. I'm more interested in the upfront money, as we're now in the red financially due to our part construction costs. The sponsorship agreement is for 9 races so it will take us into next season.

A week later, we sign a 3 star free agent race mechanic in Fritz Konig from Germany at £88,000 per race for the next 20 months. Concentration 10, Part Fixes 4, Pit Stops 6, Reliability 20, Chemistry 17, Performance 19. Guy's a stud! We sack Oscar Deveritt and Konig takes over as Evans' chief mechanic. However, I'm hoping I'll have a better driver soon and if so, Konig will take over as his chief mechanic, allowing Ines Santa Ana to maintain her long-time relationship with Tom Woodbridge.

Scouting on potential new drivers continues and we have one that looks interesting in 23 year old Lisandro Cruz but I'm not going to make any offers until I check a couple more racers out.

Ines Santa Ana and reserve Katie Linares run laps once again in practice and we have a bit of trouble setting up our #2 car belonging to William Evans. I'm guessing that's due to the fact we have a new mechanic on the car but hopefully his talent eventually shines through. We deal with rain during the practice session and rain is once again expected for the race the next day.

William Evans in the front row on the pole and Ines Santa Ana starts 3rd in row two. With our improvements in the second race, I get a bit bold and invite Wan Chai Industries to the race as our sponsor - we'll need a 9th place finish to cash in on the £450,000 bonus they are offering.

It's absolutely pouring on race day and as you can imagine, William Evans struggles with the conditions and drops quickly to the middle of the pack early in the race. However, Evans actually races well on this day, sticking around the 12th place position for most of the race. He gets through the whole race with only two pit stops but it meant he had to conserve fuel for the last number of laps and he'd eventually finish in 18th position, only beating Alex Rogers and Mustafa El Sadat, both from Archer BRM, who crashed into each other in the 6th lap of the race. I'm guessing tempers may have been flaring there!!! Ines Santa Ana also had a fine race and similar to the last race in Munich, ran at the front for awhile at the beginning of the race. I continued to have major issues with her gearbox, necessitating two fixes during the race and once again, she'd fall to 15th place. Jean-Francois Beauchamp of Garuda Racing won for the second consecutive race, with Jean-Pierre Gerard from Firebird MRT finishing second and Tanvir Jha grabbing the last podium spot and third place. Andre Sabado from Firebird finished 7th but had the fastest lap, gaining the two bonus points in the process.

This was a disappointing performance. The track contained mostly soft turns and required a less technical approach, something I thought might favour us. However, our number one car continues to have major issues with part reliability and it's something that will require much attention as we go forward.

May 12, 2016
Milan Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 31 Laps, 20 Points
2. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 31 Laps, +25.531, 19 Points
3. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 31 Laps, +37.812, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Sergio Valdes, ZRT Autosport, 31 Laps, +45.875, 17 Points
5. Sergio Arbeloa, Eastwood Motorsport, 31 Laps, +46.312, 16 Points

15. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 30 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 6 Points

18. William Evans, Predator Racing Group, 29 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 3 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE FOUR: Tondela Grand Prix, Portugal (June 9, 2016)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high)
Laps - 49 (2.4 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)


We have four weeks of preparation before our next race in Portugal. After handling the post-race repairs, we being work on a new suspension for our #1 car, the last part we haven't upgraded. We continue working on reliability and performance updates as usual.

The BIG NEWS comes on May 20th, as we come to terms with free agent driver Rafael Rodrigues, a 28 year old from Portugal, to a 2.5 year "equal status" contract at £577,000 per race. This guy is a stud - 3.5 stars: Braking 10, Cornering 19, Smoothness 16, Overtaking 16, Consistency 15, Adaptability 6, Fitness 9, Feedback 13, Focus 17. His one negative is that he's a "Pessimist", which knocks his morale down 10 points but he's also considered "Passionate" and wants to win trophies rather than just earn money and that means his salary demands will be about £100,000 lower than normal for his skill level. That was proven by the fact he didn't even try to negotiate his contract - he accepted my first offer without reservations! Rodrigues is also a sensational 85% marketability. Somehow, despite his skill level, he's never raced in the GMA.

With the arrival of Rodrigues, we shift William Evans down to a reserve role and release Katie Linares from her contract. She never competed in an official race during her time with the team.

We head into the practice session and while Rodrigues and Ines Santa Ana are considered "equal status" Main Drivers, I give our #1 car to Rodrigues and shift Santa Ana into the #2 car. She's okay with that for now by the looks of it. Rodrigues gains Fritz Konig as his chief mechanic while Santa Ana keeps Tom Woodbridge. The weather is gorgeous for the practice session and is supposed to be just as nice for race day so we go with SuperSofts in practice. We're able to get the #2 car dialed in quickly with Ines Santa Ana but we have tremendous difficulty with the #1 car and our new driver Rafael Rodrigues - he comes into the pits three times during the practice session and we only have a 75% rating at the end of the session.

We do some more tweaking to Rodrigues' setup prior to the race but we're working blind right now. He gets the pole position to start the race and Ines Santa Ana starts right beside him in the front row. I once again invite Wan Chai Industries to be our sponsor for the event, hoping to take advantage of our brand new, skilled driver in hopes of finishing ninth or better to earn our bonus.

It's a beautiful day and we're in shock right away, as Rafael Rodrigues struggles right out of the gates, giving way to Ines Santa Ana and many others early on. Obviously, our car setup struggles in the practice session spilled over to race day and I sat stunned as our #1 car and our new driver dropped like an anchor into the middle of the pack. Then, only 10 laps into the race, we watch in horror as Rodrigues CRASHES on a tight corner while trying to make up time and HE'S OUT OF THE RACE!!!

Holy crap!

Unfortunately, things didn't go much better for Ines Santa Ana. She was in our weaker car and even with her decent talent, there was no overcoming our pathetic #2 car and its limitations. Santa Ana fell quickly to the back of the pack and never could catch up, ultimately finishing in 19th spot and last place among the cars that finished the race. Sergio Arbeloa from Eastwood Motorsport wins his first career race in impressive fashion, with Andre Sabado from Firebird MRT finishing 42 seconds back. Sabado's teammate Jean-Pierre Gerard finished in third. In addition to the race win, Arbeloa also had the fastest lap and gets the two bonus points for doing so.

Well, this was a horrible, horrible race and a complete shock. Adding to our misery is the fact that after the Rodrigues wreck, the GMA did their customary post-race scrutinizing and declared that we broke a rule with his engine, fining us £100,000 and banning his engine.

OH BOY. We are in BIG TROUBLE.

June 9, 2016
Tondela Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sergio Arbeloa, Eastwood Motorsport, 49 Laps, 22 Points
2. Andre Sabado, Firebird MRT, 49 Laps, +42.031, 19 Points
3. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 49 Laps, +49.593, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 49 Laps, +70.218, 17 Points
5. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 48 Laps, +1 LAP, 16 Points

19. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 47 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 2 Points
20. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 10 Laps, CRASHED, 1 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE FIVE: Ardennes Grand Prix, Belgium (July 7, 2016)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Acceleration Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (high), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 33 (3.61 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Sun and Clouds w/Rain)


We are in disarray at Predator. Our high cost new driver just crashed in his first race and the engine in his car was banned by the Global Racing Association. Despite having a negative bank balance of around £3 million, I have no choice but to get our lead designer to build yet another engine, our second rebuild already this season. We're just THROWING MONEY AWAY!!!

We DO get a piece of good news a couple days after the race, as we welcome a new race bonus sponsor to Predator. Likely influenced heavily by the arrival of Rodrigues, we welcome Northern Harbour Clothing out of the UK on as our first ever 2 star sponsor. They give us a whopping £1.25 million upfront in the deal and offer us £880,000 if we finish 2nd or better in a race they sponsor. This is a six race deal and I'm relieved to get a quick cash infusion to offset all these added costs.

In late June, Global Motorsport Association members vote on whether to introduce low-profile tires in future years. They aren't fast tires but look great and are the second cheapest tyres available at £15,000 per race. We decide to vote on this one, siding with introducing the new tires but the vote is rejected by a 6-4 margin.

We are able to get our new engine built a few days before the race, with a performance rating of 25/77 and 50% reliability and a "good" rating, replacing our previous 40/52 engine that was banned. That engine goes into Rafael Rodrigues' car and Ines Santa Ana keeps her current, shoddy engine.

The practice session is run under mostly sunny skies but with rain expected tomorrow, I make sure to get both cars working with both SuperSofts and Inters, just in case the rain comes. Thankfully, we do a great job getting the car setups right in practice, with both cars coming in around 95% or so. Promising! Once again, I invite Wan Chai Industries to the race as our sponsor and our target is a 9th or better finish.

Once again, we hold both positions in the first row, with Rodrigues on the pole and Santa Ana in second position. Santa Ana falls pretty quickly to the bottom of the pack and even though our #2 car seems to be more reliable than our #1 car, it just doesn't have good performing parts and can't keep up with the other cars on the circuit. Despite only three pit stops, Santa Ana finishes over a lap behind the eventual winner and in 19th place, only topping Tanvir Jha, who crashed out on lap 7. Meanwhile, Rafael Rodrigues took control of the race from the pole position and maintained a lead for at least half the race. We had issues with his brakes about half way through the race, necessitating a repair and that pit stop dropped him back into 3rd place. He'd hold onto that position for the back half of the race but with about six laps remaining, his brakes failed AGAIN! They were redlining and I had to pull him into the pits one more time. Our pit crew did great work to get him back out on the track quickly but ultimately, he would drop out of a podium spot and finish 5th, a very promising performance and our best finish of the season thus far! 20 year old Amanda Cavalcanti from Silva Racing stuns the field and wins her first career race by 45 seconds over Bao Tang from Dragon Race Team China. Jean-Francois Beauchamp from Garuda finishes in third. Edda Jonsdottir only finished in 11th but had the fastest lap and therefore gains an extra two points.

Well, from hitting rock bottom last month to a 5th place finish in Ardennes, allowing us to reach our sponsor target and earn an additional £450,000. If we had a more reliable car, I'm positive we could have earned a podium position and maybe even a win.

July 7, 2016
Ardennes Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 33 Laps, 20 Points
2. Bao Tang, Dragon Race Team China, 33 Laps, +45.062, 19 Points
3. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 33 Laps, +45.781, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 33 Laps, +46.531, 17 Points
5. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 33 Laps, +47.031, 16 Points

19. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 32 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 2 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE SIX: Munich Grand Prix, Germany (August 11, 2016)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Acceleration, Deceleration and Medium Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very low)
Laps - 39 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Overcast)


Money is really tight right now and for the first time all season, we're not working on building new parts, only working on our existing parts.

A media report comes out that Rafael Rodrigues loves racing so much that he does it often for fun on the side. His marketability rises yet another 5% as a result of this temporary "Racing Touring Cars" personality trait. The "Rodrigues effect" is in full swing, as we get a new fixed payment sponsor to come on board in HX Telecoms out of South Korea, who offer £350,000 upfront and £150,000 per race for 7 races. They are our second 2 star sponsor.

We also have work being done on our data centre and networking capabilities and it's determined that our data storage is out of date. I'm presented with the dilemma of going with the chairman's demands of upgrading the whole system for £500,000 or just avoiding the issue. I pay the money.

We race in Munich for the second time this year, utilizing Track A, which consists of more straightaways than Track B, which we raced on earlier this season. We head into the practice session with some added confidence and we're starting to really dial in the cars, getting both Rodrigues' car and Santa Ana's car into 95%+ territory. I again invite Wan Chai Industries to the race as our sponsor and our target is a 9th or better finish.

Incredibly, Rafael Rodriguez is still on the pole, even after his fifth place finish last month, as he's still holding the 20th place position in the overall standings. Ines Santa Ana is 19th overall and starts alongside Rodrigues in the front row. Unfortunately, Santa Ana continues to struggle in our lesser car and she runs near the back of the pack for the majority of the race. She ultimately finishes in 19th place, one spot ahead of Aurelie Dembele from ZRT Autosport. Meanwhile, Rodrigues starts on the pole and immediately starts building a big lead, one he carries for the majority of the race. We've been working hard on his car for a couple of months now, mostly on the part reliability issues and those improvements have been apparent. Rodrigues is running an incredibly smooth race and builds a 30+ second lead with about ten laps remaining but both his engine and brakes start failing and both are in red-line areas. Our pit crew feels they can get the parts fixed and him back on the track within a second or two of hard-charging Andre Sabado so we bring Rodriguez in. The pit crew does a great job but as expected, Rodriguez leaves the pits about three seconds behind Sabado. I'm closely watching the standings area which shows the tire conditions of our competitors and Sabado looks to be wearing out quickly. My thoughts are confirmed when SABADO PITS WITH FIVE LAPS REMAINING! He's out in a flash on softs but Rodrigues regains the lead and ends up crossing the finish line about 9 seconds in front, as Predator Racing Group not only has their first podium in the NoSkillz era, but OUR FIRST VICTORY!!! Finishing behind Sabado in third is Edda Jonsdottir from Eastwood Motorsport and she also has the fastest lap bonus to gain an extra two points.

The only bad news is after the race, when the GMA tells us that Ines Santa Ana's gearbox was non-conforming and our team was given a £200,000 fine and she was dropped into last place as a result. Of course, her gearbox was offically banned as well. Inconvenient, yes, but we have our first ever victory because of Rafael Rodrigues and his great driving!

A historic day for Predator Racing Group!

August 11, 2016
Munich Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, 20 Points
2. Andre Sabado, Firebird MRT, 39 Laps, +9.281, 19 Points
3. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 39 Laps, +25.718, 20 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 39 Laps, +36.437, 17 Points
5. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 39 Laps, +42.312, 16 Points

20. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 38 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 1 Point

[NoSkillz]

RACE SEVEN: Guildford Grand Prix, United Kingdom (September 8, 2016)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 34 (3.47 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Rain); Race Day (Overcast)


After his win, Rodrigues picks up another personality trait as a "race winner" - remember, his "passionate" trait detailed his desire to win trophies above all else so his first win gives him a whopping 20 point morale boost!

Ines Santa Ana's gearbox is banned and that's now the second part we've had banned this season. She's not happy with us nor is she happy to be forced back into using the old, crappy gearbox. She gains a temporary personality trait called "losing trust" and her morale takes a 25 point hit for the next 26 weeks! As indicated previously, we are also fined £200,000 for the infraction by the GMA.

The GMA conducts another vote, this time about introducing a virtual safety car instead of an actual live safety car. The powers that be indicate that the virtual car will limit a car's speed electronically, meaning that there is no bunching as seen with a physical safety car and allows front runners to maintain their cushions. I could see that this vote didn't have many people in favour of the change, something that I didn't want either so I was able to abstain and the vote was still swiftly rejected by a 6-1 margin.

A week later, I get an email from Ines Santa Ana, who says the media is indicating that I'm considering getting rid of her. She's not happy and she develops a new personality trait "suspicious about media report" that knocks her morale down by a whopping 30 points for the next eight weeks. Boy, she's not a happy camper these days and with the crappy car I'm saddling her with, I don't necessarily blame her.

We head into Guildford on a high and after a bit of trouble getting the cars dialed in, we are able to get strong positive responses from both Rodrigues and Santa Ana in their final laps of practice, hopefully setting the stage for a promising race the next day. After our victory last month, I get bold and invite Northern Harbour Clothing to be our race day sponsor - they demand a 2nd place finish or better as our target, one that will pay us a whopping £880,000 if we succeed.

Ines Santa Ana starts the race on the pole and even after his win last month, Rafael Rodrigues still starts in the second row in the 3rd position. Santa Ana is immediately passed by Alex Rogers from Archer BMR and Rafael Rodriguez and languishes near the back of the pack for the majority of the race. Losing her excellent but illegal gearbox after the last race obviously has a negative effect and Santa Ana ends up finishing in dead last for a second consecutive race. That won't help her morale...

Meanwhile, Rafael Rodriguez battled with Rogers on the first lap but would pass him quickly to take the early lead. It was a lead he'd hold for almost the entire race. Around lap 22, we had a tire change that knocked our lead down to about 7 seconds and Andre Sabado was once again chasing us down. However, I knew that Sabado would be forced to pit at some point and on lap 28, he did just that, allowing us to build our lead to almost a full minute. We went into full fuel conservation and tire wear mode and that allowed Sabado to make up huge chunks of time on us. Our brakes started to wear and we were in redline territory at 16% and with two laps to go, I contemplated going to the pits. However, I couldn't guarantee that we'd leave the pits in the lead and I made the decision to milk the car for all it's worth and the super smooth Rodrigues was able to coddle the car home, winning his SECOND RACE IN A ROW by a convincing 37 seconds over Sabado!!

After the race, it was determined that Sabado had an illegal part and the GMA knocked him down four positions into sixth place. Therefore, the new second place finisher was Claudia Dreyfuss from Octane Racing, her first podium finish in her career. Sergey Antonov from Vexala Motorsport finished in third. We dominated this race from start to finish and Rodrigues also had the fastest lap, thereby gaining an additional two points. Of course, with the win, we also succeeded with our sponsor bonus and earn an additional £880,000!! And even Ines Santa Ana gets a break, as Sergio Valdes is docked four positions as well for an illegal part and drops to 20th, allowing Santa Ana to finish in 19th instead.

Two wins in a row for Rodrigues and Predator Racing Group is quickly becoming a force in the ERS because of it!

September 8, 2016
Guildford Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 34 Laps, 22 Points
2. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 34 Laps, +68.812, 19 Points
3. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 34 Laps, +73.343, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 34 Laps, +74.000, 17 Points
5. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 34 Laps, +78.406, 16 Points

19. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 33 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 2 Point

Here's how things look after seven races in the European Racing Series -

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Garuda Racing, 3 Wins, 218 points
2. Eastwood Motorsport, 1 Win, 202 points
3. Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 190 points
4. Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 162 points
5. Silva Racing, 1 Win, 153 points
6. Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 133 points
7. Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 126 points
8. Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 116 points
9. ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 95 points
10. Predator Racing Group, 2 Wins, 89 points

DRIVER STANDINGS
1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 2 Wins, 117 points
2. Sergio Arbeloa, Eastwood Motorsport, 1 Win, 107 points
3. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 1 Win, 101 points
4. Andre Sabado, Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 97 points
5. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 0 Wins, 95 points
6. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 94 points
7. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 93 points
8. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 0 Wins, 79 points
9. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 1 Win, 74 points
10. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 73 points
11. Merja Vaananen, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 68 points
12. Nick Chu, Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 66 points
13. Mustafa El Sadat, Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 62 points
14. Sergio Valdes, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 61 points
15. Luigi Marchetta, Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 60 points
16. Bao Tang, Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 60 points
17. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 2 Wins, 59 points
18. Alex Rogers, Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 54 points
19. Aurelie Dembele, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 34 points
20. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 22 points
21. William Evans, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 8 points

[NoSkillz]

RACE EIGHT: Tondela Grand Prix, Portugal (October 6, 2016)

Track Layout C
Track Guide - Acceleration, Low Speed Corners and Top Speed Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high)
Laps - 39 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Sunny)


Rodrigues regains the "race winner" personality trait and gains 20 points of morale for a couple of weeks.

We have another dilemma presented to us, as a reporter wants to interview Ines Santa Ana and even offers us £100,000 for the privilege. However, I'm told her morale, already in the gutter mind you, will fall further if I grant this request. She's really struggling right now so I decide to protect her from the media, helping her gain some morale back.

We're working on the suspension and the brakes on Rodrigues' car leading up to the race. We also begin work on improving Santa Ana's gearbox, which hopefully will bring her happiness up a bit.

In the meantime, another media report comes out, this time about our reserve driver William Evans - it looks like he's ramping up his partygoing lifestyle and now has an "On Party Circuit" personality trait, where his focus and fitness take one point hits while his marketability increases by 10%. Rumours are that he had a £25,000 champagne bill the other night...dude LOVES to party! Pretty funny...Evans isn't driving at all anymore so I'll let him keep the party rocking and look to replace him in the offseason.

We head into practice and once again, get both cars dialed in, getting Santa Ana's car to 94% optimal balance and Rodrigues at 98%, a season high. Interestingly enough, Rodrigues finishes second last in the practice and Santa Ana third last...we don't run very well in these practices but I'm always more interested in pitting at least three times and perhaps that affects the flying lap times. We once again invite Northern Harbour Clothing to be our race day sponsor - they demand a 2nd place finish or better as our target and once again will earn £880,000 if we succeed.

Ines Santa Ana starts the race on the pole and Rafael Rodrigues starts in row 2 in the 4th position. Rodrigues immediately jumps right into the front of the pack and Santa Ana is right behind him through the first five laps. Santa Ana's tyres start to wear early and I'm forced into an early pit, dropping her down to 14th. However, a crash on lap 9 sends most of the cars to the pits, including Rodrigues and that allows Santa Ana to move all the way up to 3rd, with Rodrigues maintaining his lead behind the safety car. He's able to build a significant 13 second lead but his engine starts failing around lap 23 and we decide to fix it during his regularly scheduled pit stop. The crew does an amazing job and he leaves the pits just in front of second placed Mustafa El Sadat and my hopes are that we can get Rodrigues to the finish without any more stops. Meanwhile, Santa Ana is comfortably mid-pack at this point but she will have to start conserving fuel at some point if she is to make it to the end of the race without another pit. This is an interesting track, with lots of tight turns and not many chances to pass, something that may favour Rodrigues during the finishing stretch. On lap 32, Rodrigues has build a 6 second lead and we go into full conservation mode, with a neutral driving style and full fuel conservation in hopes of making it through to the end of the race. Unfortunately, my strategy for both of my drivers failed MISERABLY. Rodrigues' tyres were down to about 15% with five laps to go and I felt if I pitted, he'd have no chance of holding his lead so I kept him out there and he'd end up somehow finishing the race with his tires at 0%!!! He'd get passed by six cars and ultimately finish 7th. Santa Ana had the same problem and I had to milk her home on 1% tyres and she ran out of fuel on her last lap, edging slowly across the line in 16th place. Ugh.

There is some crazy news after the race, as race winner Andre Sabado, only one race after having the GMA find an illegal part now has TWO MORE illegal parts and he goes from 1st place ALL THE WAY TO 14TH!!! What a cheater!!! So Rodrigues moves up to 6th and Ines Santa Ana moves up to 15th when Claudia Dreyfuss is also knocked down four positions for an illegal part. Lots of rule breaking going on in the ERS! So it is Mustafa El Sadat from Archer BMR taking the race, with Edda Jonsdottir from Eastwood Motorsport finishing second and Luigi Marchetta from Octane Racing finishing in third. We fail to earn our sponsor bonus.

Well, that was a race we could have won. I'll need to be smarter about pit stops in the future and I likely should have put Rodrigues on mediums after the first pit stop during the yellow but you live and you learn! Rodrigues does move up to 14th in the Driver Standings after 8 races...not bad for a guy who has only raced in five of them! Ines Santa Ana remains in 20th. Meanwhile, in the constructors competition, we move into 9th place with 110 points, two ahead of ZRT Autosport.

October 6, 2016
Tondela Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Mustafa El Sadat, Archer BMR, 39 Laps, 20 Points
2. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 39 Laps, +1.051, 21 Points
3. Luigi Marchetta, Octane Racing, 39 Laps, +1.696, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 39 Laps, +2.427, 17 Points
5. Merja Vaananen, Vexala Motorsport, 39 Laps, +4.329, 16 Points
6. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +22.027, 15 Points

15. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +174.900, 6 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE NINE: Milan Grand Prix, Italy (November 3, 2016)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 31 (3.73 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Sunny)


We get to work on improving the reliability of Rafael Rodrigues' engine, a part that broke down in the last race. We should be able to get work completed just before qualifying in Milan. We also have some time to start work on improving Santa Ana's suspension performance and the reliability of her brakes but that won't be ready until the final race of the year.

One of our race bonus sponsorship partnerships comes to an end and we have three new options presented to us. We accept a 7-race deal with Chinese company Akus that pays us £750,000 upfront and £650,000 if we utilize them as a race sponsor and we finish 6th or better.

We have yet another GMA session where a proposed rule change that would see traditional qualifying would return to the ERS. As indicated in my last post, we really utilize the practice session for fine-tuning purposes and I think we'd really struggle if we had to use our lap times so I use two of my built up votes against the proposal, which is rejected by a 7-4 margin with one abstention. Whew. There was one other principal who used two votes as well.

Just before we begin qualifying, a news report comes out with Rafael Rodrigues indicating that he's begun meditating to help him relax before a race. I guess he met a swami while travelling around India. Hilarious. Anyway, he gains an additional 2 points of Focus for the next 20 weeks.

We have some crazy weather for practice, with a soaked track to start that quickly dries and the track is essentially an oval so I expect a lot of action on race day. It takes a bit of time but we finally have an excellent practice session, with Rodrigues delivering the best lap time and Santa Ana coming in 5th! Nice! We invite brand new bonus sponsor Akus to the race and we'll earn £650,000 if we meet their objective of finishing 6th or better.

The weather looks nice to start and we have Ines Santa Ana on the pole once again and Rafael Rodrigues starts in row 4 in the 7th position. Santa Ana holds her own to start but around lap four, Rodrigues finally starts to make his move and overtakes his teammate to move into 1st place. It's an interesting track - tire wear is very low so our pit strategy is almost solely based on fuel at this point. We took a bit of fuel out of the tanks to start in order to lighten the cars and it seems to be working wonders for both of our drivers. Halfway through the race, Rodrigues is still comfortably in first place while Santa Ana sits around sixth. Santa Ana pits for a second time on lap 19 and will have to be careful with her fuel levels in order to finish the race without another pitstop while Rodrigues gets an extra lap out of his tank and by the time he exits pit row on lap 22, he's got a 15 second lead, one that extends to 29 seconds by the end of that lap as a few cars enter pit row. We hit lap 26 and Rodrigues has a 30 second lead over Sergio Arbeloa and Santa Ana is holding onto fifth. Fuel levels look decent but tire wear becomes a slight concern so I dial back a bit on that with six laps to go! Santa Ana starts to labour and drops a couple spots but ends up crossing the finish line in 7th place, by FAR her best ever performance. Rodrigues complains about his rear wing with about four laps remaining but he's able to coast during those final laps and crosses the finish line almost 40 seconds in front of his nearest competitor, winning for the third time in four races.

WHAT A RACE!!!

The news gets even better, as Sergio Arbeloa is found to have an illegal part and goes from 2nd place all the way down to 8th, moving Ines Santa Ana up to sixth! Claudia Dreyfuss from Octane Racing comes in second and legend Tanvir Jha from Garuda comes in third place. Sergey Antonov from Vexala Motorsport nails down the fastest lap to gain the bonus points but only finished in 10th. We obviously nail down our sponsor's bonus after the win and we're getting close to moving into the black as we reach the final stages of year one.

What an incredible result for both racers. Rodrigues moves all the way up to 11th with his win and should be a lock for a top ten finish after the final race of the season in Russia next month. Ines Santa Ana remains in 20th but is within shouting distance of 19th placed Aurelie Dembele from ZRT Autosport and a solid goal will be to get out of 20th. Our team moves up one spot to 8th, as we're now tied with Dragon Race Team China. It will be tough to catch 7th placed Archer BMR, who are 19 points ahead of us at this point but it's not impossible if we continue this great run.

November 3, 2016
Milan Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 31 Laps, 20 Points
2. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 31 Laps, +40.123, 19 Points
3. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 31 Laps, +40.239, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 31 Laps, +41.840, 17 Points
5. Sergio Valdes, ZRT Autosport, 31 Laps, +50.311, 16 Points
6. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 31 Laps, +65.927, 15 Points

[Brian Swartz]

This sounds fascinating! I've spent way too much money on games the last couple months as it is. You're not going to make me buy another one, ... not gonna happen ... still don't believe myself yet.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

This sounds fascinating! I've spent way too much money on games the last couple months as it is. You're not going to make me buy another one, ... not gonna happen ... still don't believe myself yet.

Ha! No pressure but this game is the real deal.

[NoSkillz]

RACE TEN: Black Sea Grand Prix, Russia (December 1, 2016)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Acceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 39 (2.96 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Sunny); Race Day (Thunderstorms)


We have a little over three weeks to prepare for our final race of our first season in the European Racing Series. We continue work on Ines Santa Ana's car and for the first time all year, we're not working on our #1 car. We're still sitting with a negative bank balance but I have an open fixed payment sponsor position available and will look to fill it soon. I have two options available to me but I'm going to hope a third potential sponsor comes to the table with something more enticing. A week later, we get a third offer and we accept it, a £400,000 per race deal with two star Ravelli & Company out of Switzerland.

We do have a chance to bring in a TV crew from Channel 6, who want to film a piece in our factory but I decline in order to avoid any disruption with our mechanics and their relationships with our drivers, turning down a hundred grand in the process.

Our practice session before the race is played under rainy conditions, similar to what is expected on race day. We have initial difficulties setting up Rodrigues but after a second pit, we have him dialed in at 98% efficiency. Meanwhile, we struggle with Ines Santa Ana's car and can only get her to 82% at the end of the session. We'll make some more adjustments and hope they are successful. The Black Sea track is tough on tires but easy on fuel and I am guessing we can get through this race with two pit stops, assuming we are careful with the tires. We go back to our largest bonus sponsor, Northern Harbour Clothing and we'll earn £880,000 if we meet their objective of finishing 2nd or better.

We have a sun shower to start the race and thunderstorms are expected at some point. Ines Santa Ana is on the pole while Rafael Rodrigues starts in row 5 in 10th position. We get off to a great start and Rodrigues is up to fourth place by the time we get to the second lap, an incredible thrust right off the bat. Santa Ana holds the lead for the first quarter of the race and it's Rodrigues pitting first while in second place...one spot behind Santa Ana, who pits one lap later. The skies have cleared but the track is still damp so I go with mediums for both drivers. Again, we're expecting thundershowers at some point and this track is killing tires right now...my hope is we can push hard on the mediums during the middle portion of the race then be ready to go with higher performance tires in the last third. Rodrigues exits the pits in sixth spot but moves up to third a lap later when a few more cars pit, including Santa Ana, who pits while in first but exits in 6th. By the time we reach lap 13, Rodrigues has vaulted into the lead and Santa Ana is up to fourth. Barring any lockups, we should get good life out of the mediums so I continue to push them hard but dial back a touch on the fuel consumption on both cars in hopes I can get through the last 26 laps with only one more stop for each car. It's going to be tough!

And my biggest fears are realized for Ines Santa Ana, as a major lockup causes some incredible wear on her tires and we're forced to bring her in prematurely on lap 18. The weather LOOKS like it's about to get wet again so I put her on inters and will hope for the best. She enters the pits in 9th place and re-enters in 19th. UGH. Meanwhile Rodrigues has extended his lead to over 13 seconds. Rodrigues pushes the lead to 17 seconds when he has to pit on Lap 23 and I realize that he won't be able to make it to the end of the race because of fuel tank limitations. So I don't fill the whole tank up, change to inters as a major storm is coming and again, I'll keep my fingers crossed. By the time the rain comes on lap 26, Rodrigues has dropped back to fourth place and his tire condition is dire. Gosh, I'm doing a pathetic job managing this race! It's absolutely pouring by the time we hit lap 32 and we're back in first place with Rodrigues but Santa Ana has dropped all the way to the back of the pack and is now being used to hold drivers up where possible. The track continues to eat away at our tires and by lap 36, Rodriguez is down to 30% then LOCKS UP and is down to 8%. Oh my. We're toast. We are forced to pit AGAIN with only three laps remaining and he exits in fifth place. Then almost immediately after leaving the pits, his tires are down to 75% after another lock up on the soaked track. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!! The four drivers in front look to be in bad shape and my only hope is that they have to pit. We get to the last lap and I notice that a few of the guys essentially have no tires left and Rodrigues is able to make up enough ground to just squeak past Sergey Antonov on the final stretch and cross the line in second place, 5 seconds back of Amanda Cavalcanti.

I need a stiff drink after that!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

We find out after the race that Cavalcanti is given a ten second penalty and that means that RAFAEL RODRIGUES WINS THE RACE!!! Oh my God!

Sergey Antonov from Vexala finishes third, Edda Jonsdottir once again gains the bonus points for having the fastest lap and disappointingly, Ines Santa Ana finishes dead last after doing so well early in the race but three drivers get illegal part penalties, including that chronic cheater Andre Sabado, who had TWO MORE ILLEGAL PARTS. Man, they aren't bright over at Firebird MRT!

I had planned for only two pit stops, needed four for both drivers and there wasn't anyone in the race with less than that so perhaps I'm being hard on myself.

Well, that's four race wins out of the last five for Rafael Rodriguez and there is no question that if we can get him a decent car next year, he should challenge for the ERS Driver's Championship. As it stands, he jumps all the way up to fifth overall in the standings, taking advantage of the double points available for the last race, one hell of an accomplishment considering he only raced six times for us! As expected, Ines Santa Ana finished in 20th and William Evans, who raced four times this season, finishes 21st.

Predator Racing Group finishes in 7th place in the constructors, a pretty solid finish that we'll look to build on next year.

December 1, 2016
Black Sea Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, 40 Points
2. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 39 Laps, +5.091, 38 Points
3. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 39 Laps, +5.633, 36 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 39 Laps, +48.177, 34 Points
5. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 39 Laps, +78.321, 32 Points

17. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 37 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 8 Points


Here are the final results in the 2016 European Racing Series -

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Garuda Racing, 3 Wins, 332 points
2. Eastwood Motorsport, 1 Win, 289 points
3. Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 264 points
4. Silva Racing, 1 Win, 257 points
5. Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 246 points
6. Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 207 points
7. Archer BMR, 1 Win, 204 points
8. Predator Racing Group, 4 Wins, 193 points
9. Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 171 points
10. ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 167 points


DRIVER STANDINGS
1. Jean-Francois Beauchamp, Garuda Racing, 2 Wins, 167 points
2. Tanvir Jha, Garuda Racing, 1 Win, 165 points
3. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 0 Wins, 155 points
4. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 144 points
T5. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 4 Wins, 134 points
T5. Sergio Arbeloa, Eastwood Motorsport, 1 Wins, 134 points
T5. Jean-Pierre Gerard, Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 134 points
8. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 0 Wins, 130 points
9. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 1 Win, 127 points
10. Mustafa El Sadat, Archer BMR, 1 Win, 124 points
11. Merja Vaananen, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 120 points
12. Andre Sabado, Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 112 points
13. Luigi Marchetta, Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 109 points
14. Sergio Valdes, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 104 points
15. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 98 points
16. Bao Tang, Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 88 points
17. Nick Chu, Dragon Racing Team China, 0 Wins, 83 points
18. Alex Rogers, Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 80 points
19. Aurelie Dembele, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 63 points
20. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 51 points
21. William Evans, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 8 points

[Umbrella]

Cool dynasty. I was wondering when the first MM dynasty would be done. I think I'm the only Predator player that didn't hire Rodrigues, and as such, I'm not having the success others are seeing.

[Brian Swartz]

On that, I'm curious about the challenge level of the game. I've watched a few videos, and I think the game looks great aside from that potential issue. With three series to work your way through, if you don't have to spend much time in each one it would seem to be quite fun but not for all that long once you've reached the top. Are there customizable difficulty settings? How good in the current state of the game is the AI in terms of setup, race strategy, etc?

I've seen a few videos of people doing terrible things in races(extra pit stops, poor decisions, etc.) and winning pretty easily against superior drivers and cars despite it. Some were from pre-release builds so as always I take that with a grain of salt, but with the relatively limited scope of the game that's definitely my biggest potential issue right now.

Or NoSkillz could just hurry up, sacrifice his life to the goal of getting a few more seasons up so I can see how it works.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

On that, I'm curious about the challenge level of the game. I've watched a few videos, and I think the game looks great aside from that potential issue. With three series to work your way through, if you don't have to spend much time in each one it would seem to be quite fun but not for all that long once you've reached the top. Are there customizable difficulty settings? How good in the current state of the game is the AI in terms of setup, race strategy, etc?

I've seen a few videos of people doing terrible things in races(extra pit stops, poor decisions, etc.) and winning pretty easily against superior drivers and cars despite it. Some were from pre-release builds so as always I take that with a grain of salt, but with the relatively limited scope of the game that's definitely my biggest potential issue right now.

Or NoSkillz could just hurry up, sacrifice his life to the goal of getting a few more seasons up so I can see how it works.

These are all good points, most of which I can't answer at this early stage of the game.

There is pretty much no customization at this point and I think that will severely hinder replayability down the line. I'd also love to see more of a random start feature where the teams/drivers/staff/etc are all mixed up as opposed to everything being the same every time you start a new career. Rodrigues is a great example - once scouted, it's easily apparent he's the top free agent driver on the market in every game you play and that should be randomized. But I'm guessing since this is a first generation game, the developers were primarily concerned with balance issues and setting things up as they did allows them to maintain that balance.

As for the AI - again, it's likely too soon for me to comment. I will say that the AI seems predictable right now. The second it rains, you can almost bet that the AI will pit their drivers and put on those inters and that allows me to exploit the fact by keeping my drivers on the track a bit longer to gain an advantage.

I could probably hire another stud driver and get to the top of the heap pretty quickly but with Predator Racing, I'd be doing it at the expense of maintaining any semblance of my budget so I'll continue forward with one excellent driver and one up and comer and hope I can still move up.

I'm also hearing that it's a challenge in the offseason when getting your new car ready, as you kind of start from scratch to some extent with your chassis. I guess I'll see if that's the case soon.

Still, this is an incredibly polished first game and I while I think that replayability won't be very high once I "reach the summit", I definitely think that the makers of the game are onto something good and perhaps they can address replayability at some point down the road, whether it's in a patch (perhaps introduce an editor, introduce a random setup feature, introduce a real life driver/car file, etc) or in the next version of the game. Regardless, I'm guessing I'll get my money's worth out of this year's game even if they do nothing else.

[Umbrella]

To add to that, from what I understand, jumping up to the next level is pretty painful. For example, to build a new car on the European tour will cost about $15M to get it tricked out. On the Asian tour, it's about $25M, and on the World tour, it is a whopping $50M. So when jumping up levels, your car is severely worse than the competition.

As far as difficulty levels, you choose your character's backstory, which provides various benefits. Or you can be a complete unknown, which gives no benefits. Also, the team you choose is sort of choosing a difficulty level.

There are rumors that there will be much more customization options down the road, but they are just rumors at this point.

For me, the difficulty is fair. I don't know much about racing, and I started with the worst team, and finished my first season second from the bottom. So far in my second season, I'm around 6th place, so it is slowly improving. For a game like this, it isn't super difficult, but not a cakewalk either. As I mentioned in the Off Topic thread, it would be nice to have a bit more randomization of the drivers to start, since there are certain drivers everyone knows are good. But I suppose you have this same issue in FM as well.

[Brian Swartz]

That sounds good enough for me. Definitely at least to support an idea that's well-done so far by all appearances and certainly has a lot of potential. I fold .

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

On that, I'm curious about the challenge level of the game. I've watched a few videos, and I think the game looks great aside from that potential issue. With three series to work your way through, if you don't have to spend much time in each one it would seem to be quite fun but not for all that long once you've reached the top. Are there customizable difficulty settings? How good in the current state of the game is the AI in terms of setup, race strategy, etc?

On my second playthrough (first one I got canned in my second season) with Octane racing (mid pack in the lowest tier) from memory my results were:

Season 1: Tier 3 - 4th
Season 2: Tier 3 - 1st
Season 3: Tier 2 - 5th
Season 4: Tier 2 - 4th (This doesn't look like much improvement but I had maybe 75% of the points of first place, where the previous season I had maybe 40%)
Season 5: I'm going to finish 1st or 2nd but I think I will skip being promoted since, just looking at the facilities the teams in the next series are way, way better than me.

[NoSkillz]

December 2016


- Our first order of business as the season ends is to sack partygoing reserve driver William Evans and we officially sign Shen Qi, a 19 year old Wonderkid driver who was a reserve with Eastwood Motorsport this year. Qi already compares quite favourably with Ines Santa Ana and I plan on having her push for a spot as soon as next year.

- We earn a whopping £11,875,000 for our finish in the constructors standings. AWESOME!

- A few awards are announced. Edda Jonsdottir of Eastwood Motorsport wins the Driver of the Season...what the actual *&$#? She's an awesome driver, no doubt but she didn't even win a race! Wild. Harvey Wheaton of Vexala Motorsport wins the Manager of the Season, as Vexala finished 3rd behind the powerful Garuda Racing and Eastwood teams.

- Garuda Racing, who I'm guessing are promoted into the Asia-Pacific Series, are dealt a WHOPPING BLOW, as both Jean-Francois Beauchamp, the 2016 Driver's Champion and legendary Tanvir Jha BOTH RETIRE!! Boy, good luck in the second tier! Ozu Motor Team out of Japan are relegated from the Asia-Pacific Series and will race in our division next year.


2017 - New Car Design

It's time to start building our new car for 2017. We saved £10 million specifically for our new car and with the £11+ million we currently have in the bank, that means we have over £21 million at the moment.

I've heard that concentrating on "improvability" is the most important thing when working through this process.

ENGINE SUPPLIER -
We have three choices here and I go with the most expensive from Rossini, which offers "very weak" Fuel Efficiency, "medium" improvability and a +8 Base Stat Modifier and will cost us £6.2 million.

FUEL SUPPLIER -
I go with the middle option here, which provides "weak" Fuel Efficiency and "weak" improvability at a cost of £1.5 million. We could have spent a million more for Medium Fuel Efficiency but very weak Improvability and again, I am hoping that going with Oceania Energy as our Fuel Supplier is the right choice.

MATERIAL SUPPLIER -
Again, we go with the middle option in Morimoto Materials, which offers "weak" tyre wear and "weak" tyre heating at £3.5 million.

BRAKE SUPPLIER -
We go with the top option here in JP Race Technologies, which offers "weak" tyre wear and "medium" tyre heating for £3.5 million.

All of this costs us £14.7 million and gives us the following ratings:

Tyre Wear: 2 stars
Tyre Heating: 2.25 stars
Fuel Efficiency: 2 stars
Improvability: 2.25 stars

Ugh. Our new chassis should be complete by early March.

[NoSkillz]

January 2017


There is a bunch of driver movement on other teams as we enter the new year and I'll chat about that just before the season begins.

We are kind of threatened by a magazine writer about letting him visit our headquarters to see how our new car development is coming, with him threatening us with a negative article if we don't let him visit. Morally I should tell him to stick it up his ass but I decide to let him visit, garnering a 10% increase to our marketability as a result while also seeing the morale of Ines Santa Ana take a 10 point hit. Oh well.

Our lead designer also indicates that during some tyre simulations for the new car, the team feels we can make some gains with respect to tyre wear. The technology will cost £1.5 million and I authorize the investment. I make another 1.5 million investment in late February, gaining an extra improvability point on our engine.

We have two sponsor spots available heading into the season and fill them both up in late January. Notifly out of Russia comes on board as a race bonus sponsor that will pay us £700,000 for a 2nd place or better finish in a 3-race deal. They also are offering a whopping 3.2X bonus for the Black Sea Grand Prix so I'll definitely be using them for that race! We also bring back Carne Blanco as a Fixed Payment Sponsor for the whole season, grabbing £200,000 upfront and the same amount for each race.

We finish building the new car in early March and we do very well in pre-season testing, with Ines Santa Ana finishing 2nd in our number 1 car while Rafael Rodriguez finishes 18th in our number 2 car...Santa Ana won't be happy but she obviously will be getting the #2 car when the season starts.

[NoSkillz]

March 5, 2017


Alright, lets see how Predator Racing Group looks as I enter my second year as team principal.

Team Worth: 77 million pounds (2016 - 77 million pounds)
Fan Base: 700,000 (2016 - 700,000)
Marketability: 53.0% (2016 - 16.3%)
Total Staff: 20 (2016 - 20)


Predator Racing Group - TEAM HEADQUARTERS

Our team headquarters are ranked 8th out of the 10 teams in the European Racing Series, the same as last year. We've made no improvements or additions to our facilities yet and will wait until we have a bit more money before we take that next step.

There is a headquarters-specific set of rankings and we're okay relative to our competitors in the ERS:

Design: 7th (out of 10)
Factory: 8th
Performance: 7th
Staff: 7th
Staff and Brand: 7th

All of those ratings are the exact same as last year.


Predator Racing Group - CARS


Our cars are MUCH improved over last year, that's for sure.

That said, our chassis make up is a bit worse than last year, as seen below:

CHASSIS MAKE UP -
Tyre Wear: 3 stars (2016 - 2 stars)
Tyre Heating: 2.25 stars (4 stars)
Fuel Efficiency: 2 stars (4 stars)
Improvability: 3.25 stars (3 stars)

CAR #1 -
Brakes: 55/55 (2016 - 2/35)
Engine: 96/96 (2016 - 5/17)
Front Wing: 150/150 (SPEC PART)
Gearbox: 51/51 (2016 - 14/41)
Rear Wing: 150/150 (SPEC PART)
Suspension: 126/126 (2016 - 19/34)

CAR #2 -
Brakes: 44/44 (2016 - 1/22)
Engine: 36/36 (2016 - 3/18)
Front Wing: 150/150
Gearbox: 39/39 (2016 - 11/29)
Rear Wing: 150/150
Suspension: 77/77 (2016 - 19/28)

We are rated as having the worst car in the ERS, with 10th place ratings in Top Speed and Acceleration and 9th place ratings in deceleration and medium speed corners.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - DRIVERS


MAIN DRIVER -
Rafael Rodriguez - 28 years old, Male, Portugal, 3.5 stars (2016 - 3.5 stars)
Contract: £577,000 per race, 22 Months remaining

Braking 11 (2016 - 10)
Cornering 19 (2016 - 19)
Smoothness 16 (2016 - 16)
Overtaking 16 (2016 - 16)
Consistency 15 (2016 - 15)
Adaptability 6 (2016 - 6)
Fitness 9 (2016 - 9)
Feedback 13 (2016 - 13)
Focus 19 (2016 - 17)

Driver Traits: Pessimist (-10 Morale); Passionate (-100,000 wages); Meditates (+2 Focus)
Marketability: 85% (2016 - 85%)

Rodrigues signed with us just before the fourth race last year and ended up winning four times in his seven races, simply dominating during his time with our team. We have high expectations for him once again in 2017 and he will be given our #1 car and most of our attention in the early goings with respect to improvements.


MAIN DRIVER -
Ines Santa Ana - 24 Years Old, Female, Argentina, 2 stars (2016 - 2 stars)
Contract: £167,000 per race, 22 months remaining

Braking 11 (2016 - 10)
Cornering 5 (2016 - 5)
Smoothness 8 (2016 - 7)
Overtaking 11 (2016 - 10)
Consistency 11 (2016 - 10)
Adaptability 7 (2016 - 6)
Fitness 9 (2016 - 9)
Feedback 8 (2016 - 8)
Focus 10 (2016 - 8)

Driver Traits: Grounded (+15 mechanic relationship); Hates dueling (-1 in all attributes when within 1 second of 1 other car); Taking Acting Lessons (+10 Marketability)
Marketability: 12% (2016 - 2%)

Ines Santa Ana showed some solid improvement in 2016, where she competed in all 10 races and put up one top ten finish (6th at Milan GP). She will be our #2 driver to start the year but she will have to fend off our new reserve, who looks to have great potential.


RESERVE DRIVER -
Shen Qi - 19 years old, Female, China, 2 stars
Contract: £99,000 per race, 22 months remaining

Braking 10
Cornering 9
Smoothness 3
Overtaking 12
Consistency 2
Adaptability 5
Fitness 10
Feedback 7
Focus 4

Driver Traits: Wonderkid (+50 Potential); Chatty (+2 Feedback)
Marketability: 61%

Qi comes to us from Eastwood Motorsport and I hope that she will eventually take over as our #2 driver, especially when I see the wonderkid label. I can definitely use her for feedback purposes in pre-race practices in hopes of seeing her ratings improve.


Predator Racing Group - KEY STAFF


LEAD DESIGNER -
Braylen Stockwell, 37 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (2016 - 3 stars)
Contract: £325,000 per race, 10 months remaining

Engine 10 (2016 - 10)
Brakes 19 (2016 - 19)
Gearbox 9 (2016 - 9)
Front Wing 18 (2016 - 18)
Suspension 20 (2016 - 19)
Rear Wing 3 (2016 - 3)

Stockwell came to us in April last year and will be counted on heavily this year to design a bunch of new parts.

RACE MECHANIC (for Rafael Rodrigues) -
Fritz Konig, 28 years old, Male, Germany, 3 stars (2016 - 3 stars)
Contract: £88,000 per race, 10 months remaining

Concentration 10 (2016 - 10)
Part Fixes 4 (2016 - 4)
Pit Stops 6 (2016 - 6)
Reliability 20 (2016 - 20)
Chemistry 17 (2016 - 17)
Performance 19 (2016 - 19)

Konig also joined us early on last year and has worked with Rodrigues exclusively since he joined our team. Not so good on race day but amazing in the shop...we're happy to have him.

RACE MECHANIC (for Ines Santa Ana) -
Tom Woodbridge 27 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 2 stars (2016 - 1.5 stars)
Contract: £19,000 per race, 34 months remaining

Concentration 5 (2016 - 4)
Part Fixes 3 (2016 - 3)
Pit Stops 10 (2016 - 10)
Reliability 3 (2016 - 2)
Chemistry 12 (2016 - 12)
Performance 5 (2016 - 4)

He's worked a little over two full years with Ines Santa Ana and is decent in the pits. If I ever decide to move on from Santa Ana, I'll consider replacing Woodbridge but for now, he'll suffice.

[NoSkillz]

European Racing Series - 2017 OVERVIEW

We begin our second year in the ERS, which features 10 races at six unique European venues, with repeat visits featuring a different track configuration. The prize fund in 2017 is once again £125,000,000 and the series has an estimated world-wide TV Audience of 40 million.

Set car specifications include a 1.6 litre V6 engine, a car weight of 630 kgs, a top speed of 181mph, a max 0-60mph speed of 3.1 seconds and finally, as indicated previously, all cars in the series used Spec front and rear wings to bring down costs.

There are ten teams fighting for the constructors championship in the ERS in 2017. Here's a brief look at our nine opponents:

ZRT Motorsport, United States, 1.25 stars
- Main Drivers: Sergio Valdes, 21, Spain (10 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Sergio Arbeloa, 25, Spain (40 races, 6 podiums, 1 win); Reserve Driver: Aurelie Dembele, 33, France (100 races, 4 podiums, 0 wins)
- Hotshot Valdes returns, as does Dembele but she's dropped to the reserves, as ZRT is able to bring Arbeloa over from Eastwood Motorsport, a nice coup.

Archer BMR, United Kingdom, 1.25 stars
- Main Drivers: Mustafa El Sadat, 23, Egypt (20 races, 2 podiums, 1 win) and Alex Rogers, 35, United Kingdom (120 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Peter Young, 32, United Kingdom (0 career races)
- No changes at Archer, who will lean heavily on El Sadat, who has some nice skills and won an ERS race last year.

Dragon Race Team China, China, 1.5 stars
- Main Drivers: Guillermo Almeida, 33, Columbia (132 races, 3 podiums, 2 wins) and Lisandro Cruz, 24, Venezuela (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Nick Chu, 19, Thailand (10 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins)
- Chu was one of the main drivers but is dropped to the reserves, as Dragon goes with two new drivers in Almeida, who has been a journeyman in the Asia-Pacific Super Cup and hot free agent Cruz, who hasn't raced professionally yet but looks to be very promising.

Octane Racing, Canada, 1.5 stars
- Main Drivers: Merja Vaananen, 30, Finland (60 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Claudia Dreyfuss, 18, Germany (10 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Adrian Earle, 29, United Kingdom (0 career races)
- Dreyfuss and Earle return but Merja Vaananen joins Octane from Vexala Motorsport but hasn't been on a podium in 60 career races.

Vexala Motorsport, Finland, 1.25 stars
- Main Drivers: Sergey Antonov, 32, Russia (120 races, 20 podiums, 4 wins) and Riem Czyborra, 21, Germany (0 Career Races); Reserve Driver: Simone Santore, 25, Italy (0 career races)
- Antonov and reserve Santore return but Czyborra is new to the team, taking over from Merja Vaananen, who now is with Octane Racing.

Silva Racing, Brazil, 1.5 stars
- Main Drivers: Eduardo Melo, 23, Brazil (40 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Amanda Cavalcanti, 21, Brazil (10 races, 2 podiums, 1 win); Reserve Driver: Bruno Cabral, 18, Portugal (0 career races)
- Silva make no driver changes in 2017 and got a win last year with Cavalcanti.

Firebird MRT, Russia, 1.75 stars
- Main Drivers: Alejandro Moreno, 31, Venequela (128 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Oscar Diaz, 32, Columbia (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Luigi Marchetta, 32, Italy (130 races, 17 podiums, 1 win)
- Moreno has raced in the World Motorsport Championship for eight years, most recently with Thornton Motorsport but they were relegated to the Asia-Pacific Super Cup this year and Thornton let him go. He's the definition of a journeyman, with no podium finishes in his career. Diaz is a rookie while new reserve Marchetta raced for Octane Racing last year, finishing on the podium twice.

Eastwood Motorsport, United Kingdom, 1.75 stars
- Main Drivers: Sofi Sevilla, 30, Spain (0 career races) and Edda Jonsdottir, 21, Iceland (10 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Andre Sabado, 31, Brazil (79 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins)
- Sevilla is in her first year with Eastwood while Jonsdottir is the reigning Driver of the Year in the ERS despite not winning a race. Sabado raced with Firebird MRT last year and joins the powerful Eastwood team as a reserve.

Ozu Motor Team, Japan, 1.75 stars
- Main Drivers: Oli Clarke Smith, 26, United Kingdom (0 career races) and Ebony Tyler, 18, United Kingdom (0 Career Races); Reserve Driver: Jean-Pierre Gerard, 25, France (30 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins)
- Ozu were relegated from the Asia-Pacific Cup and obviously lost all of their drivers in the offseason. Gerard raced for Firebird MRT last year and now is a reserve with Ozu.

[NoSkillz]

RACE ONE: Black Sea Grand Prix, Russia (March 16, 2017)

Track Layout F
Track Guide - Top Speed, Acceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 45 (2.6 miles each)
Tyres Available - Supersoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Overcast); Race Day (Overcast)


We begin preparations by getting our lead designer working on new brakes for Rodrigues while our mechanics work on improving Santa Ana's gearbox performance and the reliability of Rodrigues' engine.

We get our new brakes done well before race day and start working on a new gearbox for the team, as the extra early season funds are coming in very handy here! However, I expect to struggle a bit in the early goings due to low reliability parts.

Our practice session before the race is played under sunny skies and we're able to get Rodrigues' car at 92% optimization while Shen Qi drives Santa Ana's car in practice and we get it to 96%. The Black Sea track is tough on tires but easy on fuel and I am going to guess we're pitting at least three times today, with rain in the forecast. We go to our new Russian sponsor, who has a 3.2 times bonus if we finish in 2nd or better and that would earn us over 3 MILLION POUNDS - it's going to be tough but that's our goal!!

Rodrigues starts in row three and 6th position while Ines Santa Ana is in row six and 12th. It's raining to start and we have a disaster right off the start, as Rodrigues gets clipped and his front wing is completely blown off, requiring a pit stop after only two laps. There were four cars involved so Rodrigues is still able to leave the pits in 17th position, a lucky result. The rain subsides after about 8 laps but with water still on the track, the safety car comes out on lap 11 due to a Lisandro Cruz crash, giving us a chance to pit both of our drivers. Santa Ana is in 7th and Rodriguez is back up to 12th. The skies are sunny now but my crew tells me we'll see rain again in two or three laps so I keep both drivers on inters for now...and hope it's a smart decision. But of course it's a terrible decision and both Rodrigues and Santa Ana drop to the back of the pack and Santa Ana is killing her tires anyway and will likely have to pit when the rain starts. Geez I'm bad at this!! We're just having a horrible race and Rodrigues crashes AGAIN about 10 laps from the finish and requires another huge repair. It's just a rotten race for us, with Santa Ana finishing last among those finishing the race and Rodrigues can only nab the spot ahead of her.

Rookie Sofia Sevilla from Eastwood Motorsport takes the win, Olie Clarke Smith from Ozu finishes second and Alejandro Moreno from Firebird finishes third. Sevilla also got the two point bonus for having the fastest lap.

That was not a very good race on our part - we lost any chance of success when we stayed on inters during that middle portion of the race and we never had a chance to get back in it. Two Rodrigues crashes in the same race forced him into the pits for significant repairs and we'll really need to work on the reliability of our parts before we see any chance of success.

March 16, 2017
Black Sea Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sofia Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 45 Laps, 22 Points
2. Olie Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 45 Laps, +11.749, 19 Points
3. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 45 Laps, +77.570, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Oscar Diaz, Firebird MRT, 45 Laps, +97.725, 17 Points
5. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 44 Laps, +1 LAP, 16 Points

18. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 43 Laps, (+2 LAPS), 3 Points
19. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 42 Laps, (+3 LAPS), 2 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE TWO: Munich Grand Prix, Germany (April 13, 2017)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Acceleration, Low Speed Corners and Medium Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (very low)
Laps - 43 (2.72 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Overcast)


Ines Santa Ana reveals that she's not a fan of Alex Rogers from Archer BMR and develops a rivalry personality trait as a result.

We get our new gearbox finished and our lead designer then starts working on a new suspension, as we continue our rapid improvements with our parts. Prior to the race in Munich, we're able to get that suspension finished as well so we begin building a new engine. Good stuff. Reliability is still a major issue though and those improvements will continue throughout the season.

Our practice session before the race is played under partly cloudy skies and we have one of the best sessions ever, getting Rafael Rodrigues to 99% optimization while we reach 96% with Ines Santa Ana's car. Nice!! The Munich track is very easy on tires and on fuel so it looks like we could possibly get through this race with only two pits if all things go well but I'm guessing our cars will break down at some point. Our sponsor goal is 6th place or better today and that would earn us £650,000.

It's looking like a nice day to start on race day, with Santa Ana starting in row one in 2nd spot and Rodrigues right behind her in 3rd. It's a clean race to begin and we make it to lap 12 before pitting, with Rodrigues in 4th spot and Santa Ana in the middle of the pack. On lap 19, Santa Ana has suspension and gearbox trouble, necessitating a long pit stop that drops her to the bottom of the pack. She's toast! Meanwhile, Rodrigues is going along nicely in 2nd place midway through the race. He moves up to 1st but will need to pit at the end of lap 26 and both his suspension and brakes need immediate work. It's also looking like his gearbox will fail before the end of the race so I make the decision to fix all three with hopes that we can then get through the rest of the race unscathed. The pit crew does a great job getting him out quickly and he re-enters the race in 5th spot. Hopefully all the rest of those ahead have to pit before the race ends!!

With ten laps remaining, Rodrigues is looking decent in third but Edda Jonsdottir, running in first, pits and is able to maintain the lead. It's going to be tough catching her now but second place is our new goal. Santa Ana is running 18th and languishing. With four laps remaining, second placed Oli Clarke Smith pits and we are able to JUST get past him when he exits but we're running low on fuel and have to stop pushing in order to finish the race. Indeed, even though Clarke Smith didn't change tires, he was able to push ahead of us and in the end, Rodrigues finished in fourth place, getting our race bonus and showing significant improvement over the last contest. Ines Santa Ana finished well back in 17th.

The news got a bit better after the race, as Alejandro Moreno from Firebird MRT had an illegal part and was dropped from 3rd to 5th place, allowing Rafael Rodrigues to stand on the podium in 3rd! Edda Jonsdottir, last year's Driver of the Year, wins her first career race by a whopping 17 seconds over Oli Clarke Smith from Ozu Motor Team. Smith also had the fastest lap bonus.

A much smarter race from us here but unreliable parts continue to kill us. That long second pit stop for Rodrigues was a killer and despite only two pits all race, Jonsdottir pitted FOUR TIMES and still won the race. We need more reliable parts and will continue working on them.

Rodrigues moves up to tenth in the drivers standings with 21 points while Ines Santa Ana sits in 19th with 6 points. We sit in 8th spot in the Team Standings after two races.

April 13, 2017
Munich Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 43 Laps, 20 Points
2. Oli Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 43 Laps, +17.577, 21 Points
3. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 43 Laps, +29.175, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Sofia Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 43 Laps, +33.055, 17 Points
5. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 43 Laps, +26.158, 16 Points

17. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 42 Laps, (+1 LAPS), 4 Points

[Brian Swartz]

Rodrigues finished 5th in the APS in my game during the second season. Give him a not-totally-crap car(easier said than done) and he should finish a lot of races on the podium for you.

Hopefully.

[NoSkillz]

RACE THREE: Milan Grand Prix, Italy (May 11, 2017)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 31 (3.72 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)


We start building another set of brakes while also continuing performance and reliability improvements on Rodrigues' gearbox.

We find out through a press interview that Ines Santa Ana "has found God" and now has a temporary boost to her focus and her morale. Whatever floats your boat hun! I also hear from our mechanics about a dilemma with Santa Ana's engine and it requires a £500,000 fix in order to maintain our 100% reliability. I authorize the expense.

We have a couple of sponsor positions open up. On the race bonus side, we welcome Gustavo Cruises to our team, getting £800,000 up front and a bonus payment of £400,000 if we finish 10th or above for the next four races. I'm more concerned with getting that nice upfront payment and may not even utilize them as a raceday sponsor. On the fixed payment sponsor side, we welcome our first ever three star sponsor in Brutus Tyres, as they offer us £500,000 up front and an additional £100,000 per race over the next six races.

The Global Motorsport Association meets and we discuss the possibility of adding a new race in 2018 to the circuit in Yokohama, Japan. My aides tell me this track would be a good one for our team so I vote for the addition and the vote passes by a 5-4 margin.

Our practice session before the race is played under partly cloudy skies and we have another solid session, with Rodrigues getting to 97% optimization while we reach 94% with Ines Santa Ana's car through the efforts of reserve driver Shen Qi. The Milan track is pretty much an oval with a couple of tricky turns. Tyre wear shouldn't be an issue but based on fuel, we will likely shoot for a two pit race, weather dependent of course. Our sponsor goal is 6th place or better today and that would earn us £650,000.

It's looking like a nice day to start on race day, with Santa Ana starting in row one in 2nd spot and Rodrigues is in the 6th row, starting 11th on the grid. It's a clean race to begin and Santa Ana moves into first place after one lap, with Rodrigues jumping seven spots into 4th as well! Great start!! There is a crash on lap eight with Santa Ana in the lead and Rodrigues in fifth and we make a GRAVE ERROR, just missing pit row while the safety car is on the track. Everyone else pits while we wait a whole lap behind the safety car and of course, we are in 18th and 19th upon returning to the race. What a HORRIBLE ERROR ON MY PART. We start running out of fuel on lap 18 and have to pit again, with Rodrigues now up to 10th and Santa Ana 15th. However, Santa Ana's car requires heavy part repairs and she leaves the pits in 19th. Rodrigues moves up to 7th by lap 21 but will need one more pit stop for fuel. I may have completely blown this race for my drivers. Rodrigues pits again while in 5th and I change tyres and fuel, with him re-entering the race in 8th. His suspension is redlining and I decided not to fix it, a big risk but we would likely have had no chance to get a top six finish if I did take that extra time. Unfortunately, we are unable to make up any time and Rodrigues crosses the line in 9th and Santa Ana in 17th. UGH.

Ozu Motor Team won the top two spots on the podium, with young Ebony Tyler winning his first career race and Oli Clarke Smith finishing in 2nd while also winning the fastest lap bonus. Sergey Antonov from Vexala Motorsport finishes third.

Our part reliability continues to be a major concern, especially on our #2 car but my mis-management of this race cost us multiple points and a potential podium finish. I need to be better as a race manager.

Rodrigues stays in tenth in the drivers standings with 33 points while Ines Santa Ana drops into last with 10 points. We sit in 8th spot in the Team Standings after three races.

May 11, 2017
Milan Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 31 Laps, 20 Points
2. Oli Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 31 Laps, +5.096, 21 Points
3. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 31 Laps, +13.661, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 31 Laps, +16.928, 17 Points
5. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 31 Laps, +31.013, 16 Points

9. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 31 Laps, +53.309, 12 Points

17. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 30 Laps, (+1 LAP), 4 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE FOUR: Tondela Grand Prix, Portugal (June 8, 2017)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high)
Laps - 49 (2.4 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)


Reliability improvements continue in earnest. We also begin building a new suspension.

We get a fun press report indicating that Rafael Rodrigues once again is taking part in some "fun runs" near his hometown in Portugal, the site of our next race. His temporary "Fun Runner" traits adds to his marketability. Our other main driver, Ines Santa Ana, is celebrating her birthday and we hear she's touchy about this - we are presented with a dilemma to either throw a huge party for a hundred grand or just give her a card. Ha! She just gets a card and her morale drops as a result!

We add another race bonus sponsor in three star Ishikawa Malt Whisky, who provide us with a cool £1 million up front and a bonus payment of £1,200,000 if we finish in FIRST in a five race deal. Not too shabby!

Our practice session before the race is played under clear skies and our session isn't the best but we get Rodrigues up to 94% efficiency and Santa Ana to 93%. This track chews up tyres so we'll have to base our pit strategy on that. We invite the same sponsor back to this race and we need a 6th place finish or better in order to gain £650,000.

It's looking like a nice day to start on race day, with Santa Ana starting on the pole and Rodrigues is in the 6th row, starting 11th on the grid in his home race. Santa Ana's tyres are down to the nubs and we need to pit with her on lap 10, with her holding onto 15th and Rodrigues is up to 5th. Rodrigues pits on lap 13 and was in second upon reaching the pits and leaves in 8th. Meanwhile, Santa Ana is in her customary 19th position. Geez. My strategy to finish the race with two pits stops with Rodrigues isn't going to fly so I get him back on SuperSoft tyres on lap 29 and just top off his tank, knowing I'll need one more stop regardless. He exits the pits in fifth and is still in good shape. I'm just completely destroying Santa Ana's race, not paying attention as she runs out of fuel. Holy crap am I pathetic!! She pits in last place and Rodrigues pits for hopefully the last time on lap 41 and is in fourth place upon exiting. We fight with Ozu Motor Team's Oli Clarke Smith but he bursts past us on a final turn and holds us off for the podium finish, while we finish in fourth, securing our sponsor bonus at least.

Ebony Tyler wins for the second consecutive race and also earns the fastest lap time. Alejandro Moreno from Firebird MRT finished in second with Clarke Smith finishing third. Ines Santa Ana finished dead last - she's pretty rotten but I'm not helping her out AT ALL right now - I'm going to give her one more race but if she doesn't show me something, I'm likely going with my reserve driver for the second half of the season.

Rodrigues moves up to 9th in the drivers standings with 50 points while Ines Santa Ana is in last with 11 points. We move up one spot to 7th spot in the Team Standings after four races.

June 8, 2017
Tondela Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 49 Laps, 22 Points
2. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 49 Laps, +27.153, 19 Points
3. Oli Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 49 Laps, +43.360, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 49 Laps, +44.217, 17 Points
5. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 49 Laps, +61.668, 16 Points

20. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 45 Laps, (+4 LAPS), 1 Point

[NoSkillz]

RACE FIVE: Ardennes Grand Prix, Belgium (July 6, 2017)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Acceleration Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (high), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 33 (3.61 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)


We just finished with building a new suspension that carries a slight risk of a rules infraction and begin building an engine with a low risk level as well. I'll likely wait until the last race to try them out in order to avoid (hopefully) a ban.

Ines Santa Ana, perhaps realizing that her future lies elsewhere, begins doing film auditions and gains 20 points of marketability.

Our sponsors are not happy with us, saying our hospitality is leaving much to be desired. I have to spend 500,000 to up our budget and that improves our marketability by 30 points but lowers Santa Ana's morale, as she can't be bothered making the sponsor appearances.

The next vote for the Global Motorsport Association is regarding increasing fuel tank sizes, something that will benefit higher budget teams. I vote against it and indeed, the vote goes 7-3 in favour of staying with the same size tanks.

Our practice session before the race is played under partly skies and our session requires three pits but we dial the cars in pretty well, getting Rodrigues to 95% and Santa Ana to 94%. I even let Santa Ana run the practice session instead of reserve driver Shen Qi to make sure we have no excuses, as we need a better result from our #2 driver today. This track is relatively easy on tyres but tough on fuel so we'll have to base our pit strategy on that. We invite the same sponsor back to this race and we need a 6th place finish or better in order to gain £650,000.

The skies are once again clear to start on race day, with Santa Ana starting on the pole and Rodrigues is in the 6th row, starting 12th on the grid. It's an interesting start to the race, with Rodrigues struggling in the middle of the pack on a tight track and he locks up a couple of times, requiring him to nurse the tyres a bit. Meanwhile, Santa Ana is able to hold off everyone and is in FIRST PLACE as she pits in lap 11, just in front of Rodrigues, who picked up enormous ground when a bunch of cars pitted a couple laps earlier. Santa Ana leaves pit row and maintains her lead while Rodrigues is in third upon exiting. ALRIGHT!!! We get to lap 20 and both drivers need to pit but now it's Rodrigues in 1st and Santa Ana in 2nd!! That said, Rodrigues needs his engine repaired and that will take a lot of time while Santa Ana needs work on her suspension AND her brakes. UGH! We hope that this will be the last pit stop for both of them and also hope that the other contenders need to pit at least one more time. Tough luck for Santa Ana, as she leaves the pits in 18th (it's a tight race) but Rodrigues is in good position in 4th! We go easy on the fuel for both drivers and are able to turn it up on the last three laps, allowing Rodrigues to finish on the podium in third place while Santa Ana moves up to finish 15th. Simply put, her car just breaks down too much and I need to keep working on part reliability.

The race was won by Alejandro Moreno of Firebird MRT but his car did not pass the post-race scrutinization and he was dropped into 4th place, allowing Merja Vaananen from Octane to win the race and moving our very own Rafael Rodrigues up into second! Sergey Antonov from Vexala also made the podium while Oli Clarke Smith had the fastest lap yet again but finished in 6th. Santa Ana still finished 15th - she raced very well but I just need to get her car through a race without significant fixes.

Rodrigues jumps four spots into 5th in the drivers standings with 69 points while Ines Santa Ana is still in last with 17 points. We stay in 7th spot in the Team Standings after five races with 86 points.

July 6, 2017
Ardennes Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Merja Vaananen, Octane Racing, 33 Laps, 20 Points
2. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Grouop, 33 Laps, +7.995, 19 Points
3. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 33 Laps, +17.403, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 33 Laps, +27.435, 17 Points[/b]
5. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 33 Laps, +18.898, 16 Points

15. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 33 Laps, +79.632, 6 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE SIX: Munich Grand Prix, Germany (August 10, 2017)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Acceleration, Deceleration and Medium Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very low)
Laps - 39 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Rain)


Our lead designer starts building new brakes and we continue working hard on part reliability concerns.

We welcome our first FOUR STAR sponsor to the fold in Canadian company Vamoose, who give us a whopping 1.5 million up front and will pay us 1.2 million for any top 3 finishes. We will be using them a lot I bet over the next six races.

We extend our contract with lead mechanic Fritz Konig, who only had five months left on his current deal. We give him a modest salary increase and eliminate a race finish bonus clause so in the end, it's actually a great deal for us. Konig is a 3-star mechanic.

Ines Santa Ana continues her extracurricular activities, adding Snowmobile Racing to her arsenal, gaining more marketability.

This Munich race was the one where our season turned around last year, as Rodrigues pulled off his first race victory here. Our practice session before the race is played under partly cloudy skies and we do a decent job dialing in the cars, getting Santa Ana to 98% and Rodrigues to 95%. This track is relatively easy on tyres and fuel but it looks like we'll have rain in the forecast. We invite new sponsor Vamoose to this race and we need a 3rd place finish or better in order to gain £1,200,000!

The race starts with a steady rain and it looks like the track will get pretty soaked by lap ten. Ines Santa Ana starting on the pole once again and Rodrigues is in the 8th row, starting 16th on the grid. We'll push early on with Santa Ana while I'll be a bit more patient with Rodrigues, who will need to make up ground on a slick track. And of course, on lap two, Amanda Cavalcanti hits Rodrigues and his car is crushed. Fuck. I have to pit right away and we have serious repairs on our hands, with both the front and rear wings completely ruined. Five other cars are involved but Rodrigues leaves the pits in last place. Tough start for him but Santa Ana maintains her lead early in the race. On lap five, essentially the entire field pits for wets but I keep Santa Ana out there on her inters and she should be able to build a sizable lead. And OH MY GOD, Rodrigues is HIT AGAIN, this time by Alejandro Moreno and his rear wing is broken off AGAIN!!! What a disaster for Rodrigues. On lap eight, I decide to pit Santa Ana early to get her on wets, as her competitors are gaining ground quickly on the soaked track. She leaves the pits in 8th position, as once again I learn the effects of not pitting at the right time. Rodrigues is still a full lap behind. Santa Ana has to pit again on lap 15 due to tyre wear and I once again strap on wets inspite of the fact that the rain should subside soon. I plan on pitting her again in about 7 laps or so when the track dries out. It's just one of those races where we will be adapting to what the field does. Santa Ana entered the pits in fifth and exits in 8th while Rodrigues is still way back in last. We pit again with Santa Ana and put her on inters and she exits in 15th...FUCK. RAIN SUCKS!!! We pit again with both Santa Ana and Rodrigues on lap 26 and hope to make it to the end of the race. Santa Ana enters in 11th and leaves in 18th. Just so difficult to manage a race in the rain. We realize that both racers are going to run out of fuel so I go into full conservation mode with about five laps remaining and Santa Ana is JUST able to make it across the finish line before going empty and she finishes in 11th, her best result of the year. Rodrigues is able to catch one driver and finishes 19th. Two crashes are pretty much impossible to overcome.

Oli Clarke Smith of Ozu wins again and also has the fastest time, as he's proven he's definitely the best driver on the circuit this year. Merja Vaananen continues her hot streak, finishing in second while Oscar Diaz of Firebird finishes third. The cheaters are out in full force now and Ines Santa Ana moves up to 10th while Rafael Rodrigues moves up to 17th due to illegal activity by our competition.

Rodrigues falls back two spots into a tie for 7th with 73 points while Ines Santa Ana moves into a tie for 19th with 28 points in the drivers standings. We stay comfortably in 7th spot in the Team Standings after six races with 101 points but have work to do if we're to move up to 6th, which was our promise to begin the season.

August 10, 2017
Munich Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Oli Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 39 Laps, 22 Points
2. Merja Vaananen, Octane Racing, 39 Laps, +2.632, 19 Points
3. Oscar Diaz, Firebird MRT, 39 Laps, +53.014, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Sofia Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 39 Laps, +53.660, 17 Points
5. Lisandro Cruz, Dragon Race Team China, 39 Laps, +84.326, 16 Points

10. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +106.401, 11 Points
17. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 38 Laps, (+1 LAP), 4 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE SEVEN: Guildford Grand Prix, Great Britain (September 7, 2017)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 34 (3.47 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Rain)


Our lead designer starts building another new gearbox - our parts are really coming along and last race we didn't have to fix any parts in-race other than those destroyed by Rodrigues during his two dustups. I've been pretty successful just getting the parts to 75% reliability then moving on to other parts.

We welcome another new race bonus sponsor in two star Golden Tiger Bank out of China, who pay us £900,000 upfront and will pay us £200,000 for any finishes inside the top 13. I doubt we'll invite them to many races.

The Global Motorsport Association meets to discuss whether to increase practice times to 20 minutes, something I'm told helps high budget teams but not lower budget teams like ourselves. I sense that support is on the side of status quo so I abstain to gain additional voting power at a later time. The motion doesn't pass by a 5-3 margin so all is well.

Our practice session before the race is played under partly cloudy skies and we certainly make Rafael Rodrigues happy, as he Tweetes twice about how great the setup is, even though we only get him to 94% optimization. We get Ines Santa Ana to 95%. This track is tough on tyres but easy on fuel but rain will be in the forecast and that will likely cause havoc for us once again. We invite sponsor Vamoose to this race and we need a 3rd place finish or better in order to gain £1,200,000!

The race starts with a steady rain and it looks like the track will get pretty soaked in short order. Ines Santa Ana starts in row one in 2nd and Rodrigues is in the 7th row, starting 13th on the grid. We take a bunch of fuel out of both cars to start to lighten them up, predicting that we'll have to pit in short order for wets. We're just not good in the rain, as Santa Ana drops to 5th after one lap and Rodrigues drops all the way to the back of the pack! But at least no crashes to start... We pit on lap five, with Santa Ana up to 2nd and Rodrigues up to 8th but that's only because three quarters of the field pitted on lap four. Both pits stops go well, with Santa Ana exiting in 5th and Rodrigues in 16th. On lap 8, we have a crash between Oli Clarke Smith and Edda Jonsdottir and both are out of the race. No one pits so we don't either and at this point, Santa Ana is in 9th and fading while Rodrigues looks strong, having moved up to 12th. The track is soaked at this point but it does look like the rain will lighten up in about five or six laps, which will work well with our current pit schedule. We pit on lap 16 and Rodrigues enters in FIRST and exits in fifth while Santa Ana exits in 8th, as we're timing this race well so far and have both drivers on inters just as the track is starting to dry. On lap 24, we pit with both Rodrigues and Santa Ana, with Rodrigues exiting in second and Santa Ana exiting in sixth. And right after Rodrigues leaves the pits, his engine starts to fail. UGH. I'm not sure if he can finish the race but we'll keep an eye on him. With 8 laps remaining, Rodrigues is up to first and has a 14 second cushion. I'll go a bit easier on the engine and see if he can maintain that lead. With four laps to go, I start pushing again, as his lead is down to about 5 seconds while Santa Ana sits in 6th place. With two laps remaining, Rodrigues is down to 14% on his engine and gets passed by Sofi Sevilla. We'll need to hold on!!! Rodrigues crosses the finish line in second and while I breathe a sigh of relief, I notice that Santa Ana has RUN OUT OF FUEL. My GOD. She loses only two spots, thankfully and crosses the line in 8th, a great finish as we also hit our huge race bonus.

Sofi Sevilla takes the title for Eastwood Motorsport, Rodrigues finishes second and Oscar Diaz of Firebird finishes third. Santa Ana gains one spot after the race and officially finishes 7th as Eduardo Melo is penalized 12 spots for a second illegal part this year. Claudia Dreyfus had the fastest lap but that was her only highlight, as she finished in 16th.

Rodrigues moves back up to 6th with 92 points while Ines Santa Ana gains some ground on her competitors but still is in 19th with 42 points. We move up into 6th spot in the Team Standings so we are finally on target to meet our pre-season goal.

September 7, 2017
Guildford Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sofi Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 34 Laps, 20 Points
2. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 34 Laps, +2.224, 19 Points
3. Oscar Diaz, Firebird MRT, 34 Laps, +39.604, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 34 Laps, +44.245, 17 Points
5. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 34 Laps, +56.000, 16 Points

7. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 34 Laps, +70.302, 14 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE EIGHT: Tondela Grand Prix, Portugal (October 5, 2017)

Track Layout C
Track Guide - Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high)
Laps - 39 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Clear)


We aren't building any new parts at the moment and concentrate on getting our current parts up to snuff.

It's a real quiet period before our practice session, which is raced under clear skies. We only get Rodrigues setup at 93% while Santa Ana is at 95%. We invite sponsor Vamoose to this race and we need a 3rd place finish or better in order to gain £1,200,000!

It's sunny to start the race, with Santa Ana again starting in row one in 2nd while Rodrigues is in the 8th row, starting 15th on the grid. And it's a terrible start again for Rodrigues, who just doesn't know how to drive from the back of the pack and he gets clipped for the second time in three races. Geez. He has to pit and is back in 19th and looking like toast already. Thankfully, Santa Ana is doing well and pits on lap 10 in first place, getting her out in 4th on mediums. Meanwhile, Rodrigues pits on lap 14 and is in 18th. Lap 25 sees Santa Ana pit in 11th but is out in 19th while Rodrigues has moved ahead and leaves the pits in 16th. Our hope is that we can get them both through to the end of the race with no more pits and perhaps gain a bunch of spots. Rodrigues again loses part of his wing with five laps remaining but we're able to get him across the finish line in 11th, with Santa Ana finishing a very disappointing 19th. Not a good race for her.

Alejandro Moreno wins the race for Firebird MRT, with Edda Jonsdottir and Sofi Sevilla finishing 2nd and 3rd for Eastwood Motorsport. Rodrigues moves up one spot to 10th due to Merja Vaananen getting caught with an illegal part. That's a heck of a result for a guy who had no rear wing on lap two and was way behind. Santa Ana may have raced for the last time for us - I think I want to see our supposed "Wonderkid" in action for the last two races to see if we have anything there. Alex Rogers gains the bonus two points for the fastest lap.

Rodrigues moves into a tie for 5th with 103 points while Ines Santa Ana drops back into the basement with 44 points. We drop back into 7th and one spot away from our 6th place preseason goal.

October 5, 2017
Tondela Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 39 Laps, 20 Points
2. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 39 Laps, +24.165, 19 Points
3. Sofi Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 39 Laps, +35.514, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 39 Laps, +42.679, 17 Points
5. Alex Rogers, Archer BMR, 39 Laps, +47.470, 18 Points

10. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +68.970, 11 Points
19. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 38 Laps, (+1 LAP), 2 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE NINE: Milan Grand Prix, Italy (November 2, 2017)

Track Layout B
Track Guide - Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (low)
Laps - 31 (3.73 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)


Our main focus in the shop right now is to get our two "illegal" parts (engine and suspension) more reliable so we can use them in our last race of the season, with hopes that they pass through testing and become legal next year.

But the big news is made right after the race in Tondela, as we officially demote Ines Santa Ana and promote reserve Shen Qi for the last two races of the season. The 20 year old Chinese native is a "wonderkid" and with the season essentially lost, I want to see what she can bring to the team. Of course, Santa Ana is irate but she simply didn't perform well enough to maintain her spot. Having Qi dramatically helps our marketability as well and we have two sponsor slots that just opened so I'm very interested to see what will happen there as well.

We're presented with yet another dilemma, as our electronic control unit is on the fritz and I need to spend £500,000 to fix it. We're doing well with money right now and have a balance over 2 million at the moment, as I save for next season and hopefully, a chance to improve our team headquarters.

Rafael Rodrigues is out there doing great things again, this time volunteering at a local homeless shelter and gains more marketability, reaching 100%. Fantastic.

We add a new fixed payment sponsor in four star Jogo Games out of Brazil, who offer £250,000 upfront and a whopping £400,000 per race for 12 races. Sold! We also resign with bonus payment sponsor Northern Harbour, getting a lovely £1.25 million up front in a six race deal that comes with an £880,000 bonus for finishing 2nd or better.

The Global Motorsport Association meets again to discuss the possibility of increasing the amount of laps per race next year. This would not help a lower budget team like ourselves so I vote against the change and thankfully, it's rejected 6-4.

Our practice session is raced under clear skies and we get Rodrigues setup at 97% optimization while Shen Qi is at an excellent 98%. We invite sponsor Vamoose to this race and we need a 3rd place finish or better in order to gain £1,200,000!

It's sunny to start the race, with Shen Qi starting on the pole while Rodrigues is in the 8th row, starting 16th on the grid. And it's a GREAT START for both drivers, as we reach lap ten with Shen Qi in FIRST and Rodrigues all the way up to 5th! There was an early race crash that both drivers avoided and that really helped Rodrigues especially move up. And things keep getting better, as we reach lap 17 and we're running one-two, with Qi barely in front of Rodrigues!!! I want to conserve some fuel here with hopes of making this a two pit race. I pit Rodrigues on lap 21, one lap earlier than Qi, just to ensure we don't have a "queueing" issue. Rodrigues leaves the pits in 4th but unfortunately, we screw up Qi's pit on her fuel-up and she leaves the pits one lap later in fifth. Damn. Now she's behind Rodrigues. Tough luck. The positive thing is it looks like all the racers in front of her, except for Rodrigues, will NEED to pit again. We'll see. With six laps remaining, we see the top two racers pit and it's RODRIGUES now in first and Shen Qi is up to third!!! Incredible race thus far! On lap 27, Qi is now up to second, about 18 seconds behind Rodrigues but in a real battle for a podium finish with some faster cars on her tail. And indeed, by lap 28, she's now in fourth and barely holding on there. Rodrigues is leading by 19 seconds over second place Merja Vaananen at the moment and just coasting in so my full concentration right now is on getting Shen Qi to the podium but I don't know if her car can get her there. In the end, Rodrigues crosses the finish line over 18 seconds in front of Vaananen for his first win of the season and Shen Qi, in her first career race, finishes 5th!

TREMENDOUS RACE!!!

As indicated, Vaananen from Octane finishes second and Amanda Cavalcanti from Silva Racing finishes third. As usual, Oli Clarke Smith had the fastest lap bonus and finished 8th (he was one of the cars involved in the early race crash). We win a whopping £1.25 million sponsor's bonus with the victory as well.

Rodrigues moves into 4th place in the driver standings with 123 points. No matter what Shen Qi does in the final race, she'll still be in last place in the drivers standings but a 5th place finish in her first race is a hell of an accomplishment!!! We also move back into 6th place in the Team Standings and will be fighting Silva Racing to hold onto that position in the final race, as we have a slim four point cushion at the moment. That said, Vexala Motorsport is only six points ahead of us in 5th so we could possibly catch them with a good final race.

November 2, 2017
Milan Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 31 Laps, 20 Points
2. Merja Vaananen, Octane Racing, 31 Laps, +18.265, 19 Points
3. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 31 Laps, +18.479, 18 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 31 Laps, +21.744, 17 Points
5. Shen Qi, Predator Racing Group, 31 Laps, +30.380, 16 Points

[NoSkillz]

RACE TEN: Black Sea Grand Prix, Russia (November 30, 2017)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Acceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (very low), Tyre Wear (very high)
Laps - 39 (2.96 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Rain); Race Day (Sunny)


We have an illegal engine and suspension that haven't been utilized in a race yet but we'll put both into Shen Qi's car for the final race in hopes of getting those parts into next year's car. Our work in the shop right now is getting the reliability and performance of those parts up to an acceptable level.

We welcome a significant new fixed payment sponsor in four star Hyper Tech, who offer us £500,000 up front and £500,000 per race for 14 races. Incredible...easily our biggest sponsor thus far!

We decide to bite the bullet and add to our team headquarters for the first time since I arrived, starting construction on a brand new Staff Centre. This is costing us £5.75 million and will help increase driver fitness and focus while also allowing our designers and mechanics to improve their skills. Essentially our entire bank account is cleaned out but I'm sure it will be worth the expense.

We're presented with a dilemma, as the engine cooling system in Shen Qi's car requires a £500,000 fix. I tell the mechanics to forget about it - we will be installing the illegal engine before the race so the old engine is meaningless to me right now.

Shen Qi comes down with a bad case of the flu and will be 1 point weaker in all categories on race day. I'll likely let her continue racing...no reason to bring Santa Ana back up.

Our practice session starts in pouring rain but finishes under sunny skies and while we get great times from both Rodrigues and Santa Ana (running the practice for us since Shen Qi is under the weather), I can only get the cars dialed in to 93% and 91% respectively. We once again invite sponsor Vamoose to this race and we need a 3rd place finish or better in order to gain £1,200,000!

It's sunny to start the race, with a still flu-ridden Shen Qi starting on the pole while Rodrigues is in the 9th row, starting 17th on the grid. Once again, we have a solid start, with Shen Qi holding onto the lead through the first nine laps while Rodrigues works himself up to 8th. However, a 9th lap crash from Oli Smith Clarke forces most into the pits a lap or two early and Shen Qi's 8 second lead is negated by the safety car. Rodrigues has a bad pit stop and exits in 12th before the restart. Rodrigues continues to have issues, as he locks up a couple of times in the middle of the pack and requires fresh tyres again on lap 18. It's going to be a tough race for him - I have to put him on mediums and hope he only needs one more pit before the end of the race. Rodrigues exits the pits in 19th, last place among the cars still on the track. Meanwhile, Shen Qi is doing well and in second place but well back of Moreno, who is 15 seconds ahead in first right now. That's crazy...maybe an illegal car? Qi pits a lap later in 2nd and leaves the pits in 13th. Ugh. It's looking like a three pit race for everyone due to the restart and I'm guessing at least half the field still has to pit two more times so I think we're still okay here. And BOOM, by lap 23, Qi is back in 2nd and Rodrigues is all the way back up to 8th place!! We pit with Shen Qi on lap 29, with her entering in 2nd and leaving in 9th. Meanwhile, Rodrigues is up to 5th but will have to pit after this lap himself. And that's GREAT, as I have a five second lapse watching Qi come out of the pits and Rodrigues is PAST PIT ROW and will run out of fuel half way through the next lap. FUCK ME!!! There goes his race. I can't believe I did that. He's in fifth when he runs out of fuel, enters the pits in 12th and exits in 16th. Sorry man...my bad. My brain is frying watching both drivers and the last two laps I'm breathlessly watching as I'm running out of fuel and our tyres are wearing quick but we get Shen Qi across the finish line in 4th while Rodrigues somehow is able to work himself back up to 9th, an incredible result considering my misadventures with him. We'll hope we can move up further after scrutinization while also hoping that the powers that be don't catch the illegal parts in Shen Qi's car!

And of course, Qi's car is found to have an illegal suspension so we're docked two places and one hundred grand. But they didn't find any problems with the engine so that's going to get through to next year! Qi ends up dropping only one spot in the end, as Sofi Sevilla drops four spots from 2nd to 6th, allowing Qi to finish in the top five. Rodrigues ends up in 8th after the penalties are handed out.

November 30, 2017
Black Sea Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 39 Laps, 40 Points
2. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 39 Laps, +25.259, 38 Points
3. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 39 Laps, +48.725, 36 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 39 Laps, +48.877, 34 Points
5. Shen Qi, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +48.664, 32 Points

8. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 39 Laps, +75.182, 26 Points


Rafael Rodrigues moves up to fourth place to finish the season in the overall driver standings with 149 points and Shen Qi actually jumps ahead of Ines Santa Ana due to the double points available for the final race, as Qi finishes with 48 points in only two races while Santa Ana had only 44 in eight races.

Meanwhile, we jump up into a tie for 5th place in the Constructors standings, a solid result and one spot above our 6th place early season goal. Ozu Racing Team, who were demoted last year into the ERS, win this year and get to go right back up to the Asia-Pacific Super Cup while Garuda Racing will once again join us in the ERS next year.

Here are the final results in the 2017 European Racing Series -

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Ozu Motor Team, 3 Wins, 318 points
2. Firebird MRT, 2 Wins, 304 points
3. Eastwood Motorsport, 3 Wins, 267 points
4. Octane Racing, 1 Win, 251 points
T5. Predator Racing Group, 1 Win, 241 points
T5. Silva Racing, 0 Wins, 241 points
7. Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 229 points
8. Dragon Race Team China, 0 Wins, 167 points
9. Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 162 points
10. ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 150 points


DRIVER STANDINGS
1. Alejandro Moreno, Firebird MRT, 2 Wins, 183 points
2. Ebony Tyler, Ozu Motor Team, 2 Wins, 167 points
3. Oli Clarke Smith, Ozu Motor Team, 1 Win, 151 points
4. Rafael Rodrigues, Predator Racing Group, 1 Win, 149 points
T5. Sofi Sevilla, Eastwood Motorsport, 2 Wins, 147 points
T5. Amanda Cavalcanti, Silva Racing, 0 Wins, 147 points
7. Sergey Antonov, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 146 points
8. Merja Vaananen, Octane Racing, 1 Win, 126 points
9. Claudia Dreyfuss, Octane Racing, 0 Wins, 125 points
10. Oscar Diaz, Firebird MRT, 0 Wins, 121 points
11. Edda Jonsdottir, Eastwood Motorsport, 1 Win, 120 points
12. Eduardo Melo, Silva Racing, 0 Wins, 94 points
13. Lisandro Cruz, Dragon Race Team China, 0 Wins, 91 points
14. Riem Czyborra, Vexala Motorsport, 0 Wins, 83 points
15. Alex Rogers, Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 82 points
16. Sergio Valdes, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 81 points
17. Mustafa El Sadat, Archer BMR, 0 Wins, 80 points
18. Guillermo Almeida, Dragon Race Team China, 0 Wins, 76 points
19. Sergio Arbeloa, ZRT Autosport, 0 Wins, 69 points
20. Shen Qi, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 48 points
21. Ines Santa Ana, Predator Racing Group, 0 Wins, 44 points

[NoSkillz]

December 2017


- Alright, we start our offseason by looking for a new Lead Designer, as Braylen Stockwell, a 3.5 star lead hand, is on an expiring contract and would prefer to sign with a World Motorsport or Asia-Pacific team. We extend offers to two different lead designers. All three of our drivers are signed for one more year but it's important to note that our top driver, Rafael Rodrigues, is looking to move onto bigger things and won't resign with us unless we move up to the Asia-Pacific Super Cup. So that's our goal for next year...

- We earn a whopping £12,625,000 for our 5th place finish in the constructors standings. Super cool

- A few awards are announced. Alejandro Moreno of Firebird MRT rightfully wins the Driver of the Season after winning the driver's championship. Firebird's Hugo Cumberland wins the Manager of the Season award.

- As indicated earlier, ERS team champs Ozu Motor Team are promoted back to the Asia-Pacific Series while Garuda Racing are dropped back into the ERS once again.

- We have over £13 million banked right now so I decide to invest in an upgrade to our factory, a 20 week project that will cost us £8 million and bring us to a Level 2 facility.

- We sign a new fixed payment sponsor in four star Seppoil from Norway, who offer us a staggering £6.5 million UP FRONT but no additional funds for 11 races. We have other offers but this is easily the most lucrative on a per race perspective so I take that money and throw it in the bank.


2018 - New Car Design

It's time to start building our new car for 2018. We saved £10 million specifically for our new car and with the £11+ million we currently have in the bank, that means we have over £21 million at the moment.

ENGINE SUPPLIER -
We have three choices here and I go with the most expensive from Rossini, which offers "very weak" Fuel Efficiency, "medium" improvability and a +6 Base Stat Modifier and will cost us £5.4 million.

FUEL SUPPLIER -
I again go with the most expensive option here from Imperial Petroleum, which provides "medium" Fuel Efficiency and "very weak" improvability at a cost of £2.5 million.

MATERIAL SUPPLIER -
Again, we go with the top option in Carbulon, which offers "medium" tyre wear and "very weak" tyre heating at £5.0 million.

BRAKE SUPPLIER -
We go with the top option here in JP Race Technologies, which offers "weak" tyre wear and "medium" tyre heating for £3.5 million.

All of this costs us £16.4 million (last year we spent £14.7 million) and gives us the following ratings:

Tyre Wear: 2.25 stars
Tyre Heating: 2 stars
Fuel Efficiency: 2 stars
Improvability: 2 stars

Our new chassis should be complete by early March.

[NoSkillz]

Since so many people are playing the game as Predator, I doubt there is much interest in me carrying on with this dynasty in the same way.

That said, I thought I'd give a brief update on my last two seasons at Predator.

2018

It looked like we were a team on the rise, with stalwart driver Rafael Rodrigues and wonderkid Shen Qi leading the charge. We also picked up a pay driver in Bao Tang as our reserve, allowing him to run practices for Qi in order to boost our finances.

We had a pretty wonderful season that saw great improvements made to our headquarters and incredible results on the track. Shen Qi performed much better than her predecessor Ines Santa Ana, with no podiums but multiple top ten finishes, ultimately finishing 9th in the Driver's Standings.

Rodrigues was simply superb, winning two races, making the podium an incredible 8 times in 11 races and ultimately, he WON the Driver's Championship, carrying Predator Racing to a 2nd place finish in the ERS Constructors Championship, 38 points behind winners Eastwood Motorsport.

A second place finish overall sounds great but it came with great consequences. Rafael Rodrigues was on an expiring contract and was looking for bigger challenges outside the ERS. We couldn't get him resigned and he was off to the Asia-Pacific Series in 2019.

We'd need a new driver immediately. How would Predator cope losing their superstar on the track??

[Brian Swartz]

Continue on however you want -- I find the decisions to be interesting as each game plays out differently, esp. after the first couple of years. The Rodrigues situation is a tough one; it's definitely difficult to keep top talent as they all want to move up eventually.

[NoSkillz]

2019

The 2019 season began with a search for a new driver and we found a good one in 3 star, 18 year old Michela Pizzolato, an Italian rookie in her first year in the ERS.

We signed her on an equal status contract, even though we had restructured Shen Qi's contract to be our #2 driver. There is no question that Pizzolato is currently our most talented option and she will get our best car for 2019.

Pizzolato had a fine rookie season, finishing on the podium three times for Predator and ultimately, she finished fourth overall in the Driver's Standings, a pretty excellent result.

However, our wonderkid 2nd driver Shen Qi struggled immensely all season. She started "having feelings" for her fellow teammate and those desires seemed to cloud her focus in the back half of the season.

Adding to our troubles was the fact that team chairman Darren Luff was losing patience with me - he expected another second place team finish and it was quite clear that we were destined for no better than a third place finish, with two high powered teams in Garuda Racing and newly relegated Lucatelli Racing dominating the series.

My job was shockingly "At Risk" despite the fact that we seemingly found a great talent in Pizzolato and I needed to make a late season move in order to keep my job.

Somehow, someway, a 3.5 star driver, recently let go by a team in the World Motorsport Championship, was open to negotiating with me and I offered him the world, hoping for the best. In the end, I was able to secure the services of 21 year old German driver Pascal Becker, an incredible coup for our fledgling team.

Becker had four wins and 11 podium finishes in two years racing with Steinmann Motorsport but spent the last year and a half as a reserve with Van Dort Racing in the WMC before getting sacked.

I'd fire Shen Qi, who didn't have a podium finish in her two years at Predator and hired Becker with two races remaining in the season. He'd finish second in his first race with our team then absolutely dominate the final race of the year in Japan, winning by over 20 seconds to give Predator our first victory of 2019!

We'd still finish in 3rd in the Constructors but we now had one of the best driver tandems on the circuit.

Our headquarters also currently feature a Level 2 Factory and Level 2 Design Centre, a Level 1 Telemetry Centre, a Level 1 Staff Centre, a money-making Tour Centre and finally, a helipad for our sponsors. We are now considered to have the 3rd best headquarters on the circuit.

We have a great platform to build on for next year but my chairman's approval rating is tenuous to say the least.

We'll need to win this thing next year I believe...

[NoSkillz]

2020

I start my fifth season as the team principal at Predator under heavy scrutiny, as our team didn't meet expectations last year and my job is officially at risk.

The late season hire of 21 year old Pascal Becker turned things around somewhat, as he finished 2nd and 1st in his two races to give us some positives heading into this year.

Rookie Michela Pizzolato was the shocking winner of the Driver of the Year last year, with three podium finishes in her first season and she will be our number two driver this year. Bao Tang returns as our reserve and will run practices for Pizzolato, as he's a "pay driver".

Becker and Pizzolato are both signed for two more years but due to my tenuous situation, I think we really need to make a run for the ERS Constructors championship in order to save my job.

It was apparent very early on that we had a strong team and a car that was good enough to get us over the hump. Becker came out in race one and dominated, winning by over 30 seconds to get us off to a wonderful start.

As the season went on, it seemed that crashes were the only thing that could hold Becker back and even then, he still had the ability to come from way back in the pack and make the podium.

I think I was MUCH smarter about my design and part improvement progression over the course of the year, putting much more emphasis on the part reliability of BOTH DRIVERS CARS as opposed to just concentrating on the top driver's car.

Essentially, if I was to win the constructors, I'd need to make sure that Michela Pizzolato was a force as well as Becker.

In the middle of the year, in Becker's home race in Munich, we showed what we were truly capable of, with Becker taking the win and Pizzolato finishing second. It was a brilliant race, with heavy rains coming and going throughout the race, requiring multiple tyre changes and we timed all of our pit stops brilliantly.

By the time we reached the final race of the season in Japan, we had a 9 point lead in the constructors and Becker was the leader in the driver's standings as well. We'd need our best race of the season to ensure promotion and once again, in the rain, we pulled off the rare 1-2 finish for the third time in the season, locking up the team championship.

We are heading to the Asia Pacific Super Cup!!!

Pascal Becker came completely as advertised, winning 6 of the 11 races and finishing on the podium an incredible nine times! The other two times? He finished 6th and 20th (after an early race wreck). His 220 points is the second best total in ERS history.

Michela Pizzolato followed up her impressive rookie campaign with an even better one, finishing on the podium 5 times in 11 races and winning her first ever race in Milan, a race where Becker was the runner up.

Simply superb!!

I'm obviously back in the good graces of our chairman and I'm REALLY looking forward to competing in the higher series next year, even though it's unlikely that we'll be competitive in year one.

[NoSkillz]

March 5, 2021


Well, since we've finally made the jump to the Asia-Pacific Series after five years in the ERS, lets take a look at how we compare now versus our first year in the ERS.

Team Worth: 77 million pounds (2016 - 77 million pounds)
Fan Base: 100,000 (2016 - 700,000)
Marketability: 91.3% (2016 - 16.3%)
Total Staff: 48 (2016 - 20)

So yeah, I think there is a bug there - we've made significant improvements both to our headquarters and our car and we're up in the Asia-Pacific Series, yet our Team Worth hasn't changed and we're down 600,000 supporters?? Highly unlikely...


Predator Racing Group - TEAM HEADQUARTERS


Our team headquarters are ranked 6th out of the 10 teams in the Asia-Pacific Super Cup after starting as the 8th best in the ERS five years ago.

In the headquarters-specific set of rankings, we stack up well against our more celebrated peers:

Design: 6th (out of 10)
Factory: 6th
Performance: 6th
Staff: 7th
Staff and Brand: 1st (!!!)


Predator Racing Group - CARS


CHASSIS MAKE UP -
Tyre Wear: 3.5 stars (2016 - 2 stars)
Tyre Heating: 3.25 stars (4 stars)
Fuel Efficiency: 2.5 stars (4 stars)
Improvability: 2.5 stars (3 stars)

CAR #1 -
Brakes: 447/467 (2016 - 2/35)
Engine: 300/300 - SPEC PART (2016 - 5/17)
Front Wing: 504/524 (150/150 - SPEC PART)
Gearbox: 528/548 (2016 - 14/41)
Rear Wing: 517/537 (150/150 - SPEC PART)
Suspension: 480/500 (2016 - 19/34)

CAR #2 -
Brakes: 447/465 (2016 - 1/22)
Engine: 300/300 - SPEC PART (2016 - 3/18)
Front Wing: 504/522 (150/150 - SPEC PART)
Gearbox: 528/546 (2016 - 11/29)
Rear Wing: 517/535 (150/150 - SPEC PART)
Suspension: 480/498 (2016 - 19/28)

We are rated as having the worst car in the Asia-Pacific Super Cup, with 10th place ratings in Acceleration, Deceleration and High Speed Corners. We're 8th in Low Speed Corners and 9th in Medium Speed Corners. As you can see, Engines are a spec part in this series so that will help with costs somewhat - that said, both front and rear wings are NOT SPEC in this series, the opposite of the European Racing Series.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - DRIVERS


MAIN DRIVER -
Pascal Becker - 23 years old, Male, Germany, 4.0 stars
Contract: £482,000 per race, 9 Months remaining

Braking 14
Cornering 17
Smoothness 16
Overtaking 10
Consistency 16
Adaptability 19
Fitness 18
Feedback 19
Focus 17

Driver Traits: Aggressive (+2 Overtaking); Reigning European Racing Series Champion (+20 Marketability; +50 Morale; +10 Mechanic Relationship; +10 Chairman Happiness - 1 YEAR TEMPORARY)
Marketability: 87%

Becker is an absolute stud and has won 7 of the 13 races he's competed in for Predator in his year+ with our team. Despite being an "equal status" driver, I'll be giving Becker our best parts all season, especially since the Asia-Pacific Series only rewards the top six in each race points. So our second best car isn't anywhere near as important in this league.


MAIN DRIVER -
Michela Pizzolato - 20 Years Old, Female, Italy, 3 stars
Contract: £624,000 per race, 9 months remaining

Braking 8
Cornering 17
Smoothness 16
Overtaking 17
Consistency 12
Adaptability 12
Fitness 9
Feedback 9
Focus 7

Driver Traits: Dedicated (+10 mechanic relationship); Motorbike Champion (+2 Smoothness; +5 Marketability); Volunteering (+15 Marketability)
Marketability: 87%

Pizzolato has been a revelation since joining us to start the 2019 season, winning driver of the year in her first year and putting up even better numbers last year. In 22 races with Predator, she has seven podiums and one race victory.


RESERVE DRIVER -
Bao Tang - 29 years old, Male, China, 2 stars
Contract: £70,000 per race, 9 months remaining

Braking 10
Cornering 8
Smoothness 7
Overtaking 8
Consistency 6
Adaptability 5
Fitness 9
Feedback 2
Focus 11

Driver Traits: Pay Driver (Sponsor will pay £567,000 for any race he takes part in and 50% of that for practices); Famous Father (+10 Marketability; +10 Chairman Happiness); First Lap Panic (-4 in all attributes on first lap); Stock Car Champion (+2 Braking; +5 Marketability)
Marketability: 83%

Tang was originally with Dragon Racing Team China back in the ERS and we signed him in 2019. He's never raced for us but runs every practice session for Pizzolato and we gain close to £200,000 in profit every race as a result. I don't see him lasting beyond this season with our team but we'll see.


Predator Racing Group - KEY STAFF


LEAD DESIGNER -
Reginald Bristow, 44 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 4.0 stars
Contract: £331,000 per race, 33 months remaining

Engine 15
Brakes 16
Gearbox 16
Front Wing 16
Suspension 16
Rear Wing 16

Bristow came to us in 2018 and has contributed to 10 wins and a remarkable 26 podium finishes in his 33 races as lead designer.

RACE MECHANIC (for Pascal Becker) -
Alyx Grey, 35 years old, Female, United States, 3.75 stars
Contract: £89,000 per race, 9 months remaining

Concentration 14
Part Fixes 8
Pit Stops 10
Reliability 14
Chemistry 19
Performance 20

Grey joined our squad in 2019 late in the season and has been here for 15 races, garnering seven wins and 11 podiums. Solid but not adept at pit stops...

RACE MECHANIC (for Michela Pizzolato) -
Wanda Adams 43 years old, Female, United States, 3.25 stars
Contract: £59,000 per race, 21 months remaining

Concentration 12
Part Fixes 10
Pit Stops 11
Reliability 19
Chemistry 9
Performance 18

Adams joined us to start last season and as Pizzolato's race mechanic, contributed to a win and five podium finishes in her 11 races.

[NoSkillz]

Predator Racing Group - FINANCES AND CHAIRMAN TARGETS FOR 2021


Available Budget to start: -£4,230,000
Income per race to start: +£149,000

Our financial situation is perilous to start the season, as we spent close to 23 million pounds on our car and a couple of pre-season dilemmas put us in a tough situation. I'm forced to go with the middle option as far as money put aside for next year's car but I'm guessing we'll soon be in a position where we can increase that budget going forward due to new sponsors coming in throughout the year, as we'll profit off those changes. Breaking the numbers down, I see we are allocating £1,000,000 per race to next year's car (we'll increase that to 1.363 million when in a position to do so), £893,000 to our three drivers, £179,000 to our race mechanics, £331,000 to our lead designer, £469,000 for HQ Upkeep & Staff and £109,000 for travel costs.

Offsetting those costs is our per race income of £1.616 million in the form of Chairman payments, an additional £1,500,000 per race from our three official fixed payment sponsors and 73,000 in HQ Income due to our Tour Centre.

I meet with our chairman and he gives me three options as far as targets and budget:

I take the conservative option, saying we'll finish in 8th place and that gives me £1.616 million per race through chairman's investments.