//------------------------------// // Grand Prix of Diamond Bay Main Race (Formula Equestria) // Story: DangerVerse Motorsport Events // by DangerDean //------------------------------// Before the main race, Danger was a bit skeptical over Akula’s chance of a victory in the race as he started 4th on the grid behind Viral, Rainbow and his race engineer’s sister. But he soon realised, Akula had been in prime contention for wins on a regular basis so there wasn’t really nothing to worry about. Apart from the fact that Iris was in the race, albeit in the due to a gearbox change. She wanted to avenge her DNF at the first sprint and she had 45 laps to change her results around. The same was also applied to everyone else that retired in the sprint races, this included Oscura. The lights went out and Azura got swamped by both Akula, Danger and Rusalka after a slow getaway. Aria got up to 8th and with an ambitious move into the inside of turn 1, she nestled in 7th place with Azura just in front. With Rainbow taking an early lead from from Viral and Akula. Danger was in 4th and when he reached turn 6, he made a little tap on Akula’s rear-left, letting him now that he wants to be on podium. By lap 3, Viral had overtaken Rainbow the lap before and that if Akula overtook Rainbow in the coming laps, Viral would let Akula by the make it a AKV 1-2. By lap 6, Rusalka had passed Danger as his F1-75 seemed to be off the pace a little as he may have used all the energy in the two sprint races (in Rusalka’s case.) The magenta, white and red Ferrari was now on the move to pass Akula. Whether Danger was leading the race, Rusalka would always put herself in contention, no matter the circumstances. 10 of the 45 laps had elapsed and things got a bit pear-shaped for the Prancing Speedfreaks as both engines in Danger and Sonic’s F1-75s expired on the same lap. The top 12 was Viral, Rainbow, Akula, Rusalka, Aria, Azura, Twilight, Lightning, Fluttershy, Iris, Starlight and Astral. For Fluttershy however, her Bentley EXP-22 wasn’t really on the pace with Iris’ Mercedes and she also realised the Bentley had already peaked at Mystic Falls and it wasn’t getting better for her. It was evident that the Bentleys were slow on the straights and that she was losing time to both Iris and Starlight. On lap 14, Rusalka and Aria were still playing the immunity card as they both vowed to not have a similar fate to Danger and Sonic. They both held 4th and 5th and to them it was a good amount of points. But with Twilight overtaking Azura on lap 13, both Aria and Rusalka had to be realistic in terms of position because Rusalka was 10 seconds behind Viral. A dramatic crash occurred on lap 18 as while battling for 13th place, the Red Bull of Lucia Swordlight tangled with the Lamborghini of Black Flame at turn 7 which caused the Red Bull to bounce off the wall from the right side and the damaged wheel broke off and she collided with the left side wall and coasted to halt. Black Flame knew that she had to go to the pits but was unsure if she would continue. Lucia Swordlight was OK and a Virtual Safety Car was need to the clear the debris from the crash. Most of the top 10 made their pitstops for either hard or medium compounds. By lap 23, the debris was cleared with Viral with Akula close by. Rusalka was now 3rd after Rainbow was held up in the pits due to traffic. This caused her to drop to 6th behind Aria and Twilight. Azura was 7th with Iris in 8th and Fluttershy in 9th. Lightning, Astral and Starlight were 10th through to 12th and all of them, especially Starlight wished that anyone from the top 5 would retire and Akula and Viral weren’t the easiest targets. It could happen to either Rusalka or Aria as retirements from both Danger and Sonic were taken into question. Iris knew that in the dying stages of the race, she had to overtake Azura, Rainbow and Twilight if she were to finish in the top 5. But then on lap 25, she went into ‘Akula mode’ and channelled in the pace he had in the sprint races to overtake Azura and between laps 26 to 29 she overtook both Rainbow and Twilight. Twilight was a little trickier for Iris to pass as the Ferrari power unit in Twilight’s ST02 went into overdrive and imitated Danger to defend 5th pace for as long as she could. Aria thought that things couldn’t be any worse for the Prancing Speedfreaks. But on lap 33, Brio decided to make go into the pits for softs. She dropped to 5th as Iris overtook her while the Ferrari was in the pits. “Why the fuck did no one tell this was going to be a two-stopper! Fucking hell!” Aria swore on the radio, not happy with the new strategy. Meanwhile on track, Rusalka was wishing not to be a victim of Ferrari strategy shenanigans. “Did I need to pit Beatrice?” Rusalka asked on the radio. “No, Rusalka. We discovered that Aria’s tyres were 2 psi lower than we fought and that she wanted mediums but they didn’t work so we put her on softs instead.” Beatrice Firefury explained. On lap 35, it was decided that Rusalka wasn’t going to pit even though her tyres were degrading 0.07% more than usual and Danger, who was watching both Aria and Rusalka on the screens, was in shock. “Why did we not pit Rusalka.” Danger said in utter shock. He learned from about what the Ferrari strategy plagues their drivers in another world. To him, it seemed the same thing happened to them Diamond Bay.“I’m not gonna sleep tonight, am I?” The same engine failure happened to Lightning as she exited turn 19 on lap 37 and on lap 38 at turn 18, Astral suffered gearbox issues and her race was done. This was beneficial for Oscura Galaxia as she now in 11th place with Chandra Dawnsword now in 12th. By lap 40, Rusalka had caught up with both Viral and Akula. Her gap to Iris was just over half a minute but she was running low of laps to pass. To add another pinch of salt to the wounds, Beatrice Firefury was on the radio. “Rusalka, remember to conserve your energy as you are running on empty right now.” Beatrice said. “Beatrice, if I want to win this race I need to pass Viral and Akula, I need auxiliary energy.” Rusalka protested. “I don’t think you have the right amount of energy-.” Beatrice said before being interrupted by a sudden voice.” “Rusalka, this is Danger. It’s not about if you have the right amount of pushing power, it’s about the pace of the car. You can take them to a fight, I learnt that from I was your teammate at McLaren, 13 years ago. Go get’em, Rusalka.” Danger encouraged her. “Thanks, Danger.” Rusalka thanked him for that message. As she approached turn 6, the three cars were in a bunch and it was unclear which of the three would take the lead. But at turn 8, a lunge from Rusalka gave her the lead from Akula. It seemed that Danger’s message really helped her. But on lap 42, Aria could need some words of motivation as she lost a position to Twilight at turn 11. By the end of race, Akula made a few last moves but Rusalka defended so well that it was rewarded. Her first race win with the Prancing Horse and her first win since 2018 when she raced with Nemesis. Akula and Viral completed the podium with Iris and Twilight in 4th and 5th. Aria and Rainbow were 6th and 7th and Azura, Fluttershy, Starlight completed the top 10 with Oscura and Chandra Dawnsword in 11th and 12th.