Harimau International Team Profile
2 – Harimau International (Malaysia)
Team Principal:
Manjula Vamatharen (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...kistan.svg.png)
Slogan:
“Race for Nature”
Backstory:
AntiGravity racing has never really been a nice easy subject to tackle. It is rare to find any team that is perfectly understood; whether it be the numerous dark deals Qirex/Tigron used to perform, eG-r/EG-X’s mysterious technologies or Piranha’s quiet about their in-house business. But everyone could make their assumptions and fill page upon page of speculation about what evils the above teams could be up to. But the AG-Commission got a shock in 2192 when a new team entered – at first there seemed nothing untoward about that, it was seen as good for business with a newcomer in along with Triakis’ second season. But never before had the team met such an open and friendly reception as with the Malay team.
Harimau International was an international peace organisation started at an unknown date by an American psychologist and a Malaysian writer who began making plush tigers and distributing them along with free care to disadvantaged children. The two women soon began selling extra books and toys on their website, with all the money going to one of the biggest genetic clinics on the planet with the idea of bringing back tigers into their wild after their extinction in 2100.
Mrs Speed and Mrs Suruni were eager to beat off the hordes of businessmen who clamoured to fund their business and triple output of toys. All of them were instead told to send their money into the building of a tiger reserve on the grounds of the old racing circuit in Sepang. The two women’s vision was completed in approximately 2179 with the birth of the first pair of tiger cubs for almost eighty years. There was quite the turnover (and huge amounts of successful reviews in the press) when the park was launched as people flocked from all over the world to see the newborn cubs and enjoy the leafy paradise outside of the bustling metropolis of Kuala Lumpur.
One of the visitors to this park was none other than Nicolo Testa, the head of operations of the Federal European Institute for Science And Research, one of the few teams to have survived the collapse of the F9000. He was fascinated by the work of Speed and Suruni, and to his surprise the respect was responded by the former, being a FEISAR fan during the days of AG-Racing.
Through a series of meetings between Testa, other FEISAR officials, interested Malay businessmen and the heads of Harimau International, the idea was initially set up for FEISAR to have a branch in Malaysia, but this was scrapped after objections were raised from the FEISAR board of executives about having a European branch in Asia. The plans were then instead changed for FEISAR to provide assistance for a new starting team in Malaysia. With the arrival of FX150 soon, FEISAR was finding that some of its’ old locations from the F9000 still had technology and skilled personnel who did not have a place on FEISAR’s new team due to the team member limit enforced as one of the new rules.
Instead, all these engineers were sent to Malaysia to begin work on Harimau’s take on the world championship. It was a slightly rocky ride, partly due to the difficulties the FEISAR employees had with suddenly working together in close conditions but mostly due to the fact that Harimau was mostly working on a budget with strict environmental guidelines. It meant that the team wasn’t ready to enter the world championship until FX250, along with Van-Uber. As newcomers to the league, their unveiling ceremony was not as hotly anticipated as their fellow entrants, and indeed the crowd was fairly small for the unveiling of the second Orange and White ship to grace the starting grid. Only Testa from FEISAR and Levovitch of Qirex attended the ceremony from other teams, though in light of the championship afterwards it has been debated if more praise was deserved for the Malay underdogs.
In a season that was surprisingly dull by historical records, Harimau managed to beat their rivals Van-Uber to the punch at seventh place, but few people took note of the achievement. In a season that had mostly seen squabbles between various teams instead of any flat-out racing, the tradition of Triakis-AGS on the front row followed by Qirex-Auricom, Assegai-FEISAR, what was another fight between the two new teams whose pilots weren’t quite as well known as those of the more established squads? It took the much more impressive FX300 season to turn that impression of Harimau International on its’ head though.
On the island of Makana throughout what was the most ambitious league since the fall of the F9000, Harimau thrust a light, compact ship with excellent handling into the mix and it did not disappoint. The H5 ship was a perfect balance of everything the pilots needed and they began to leave the heavy squabbling Qirex and Auricom ships behind to nip at the heels of the all-conquering Triakis and AG-Systems. And with Triakis disqualified at season’s end, that allowed Harimau to put the number two on their ship from next year. That if nothing else made the punters sit up. In only its’ second season of AG-racing, Harimau had gone from seventh to second. No team before or had made such strides in such short a time including the world title taken by Daniel Johnson in 2163, given that FEISAR itself only finished fourth in the constructor’s championship thanks to Carlos Beneto’s dreadful form.
With Triakis taken out of the picture thanks to the Reverse Inertia Decelleration System, when FX350 rolled around it seemed as though Harimau was the favourites for the championship – after all, their defeat to Triakis and then the shame of being ‘gifted’ the championship grated heavily on AG-Systems’ morale and they could do no better than fourth. But their rivals were still Harimau, the white and red duelling with the orange and yellow for third place. The lack of preparation for FX350 had not produced much advancements with the H6 ship and they lost out to Icaras and firm allies FEISAR, who took their fourth world championship.
Both AG-S and Harimau were back on track soon though, and put the Europeans back into third and fourth. Though the two teams became stern competitors, it never devolved into any sort of animosity or aggression between pilots or engineers. In the words of Thierry Caluroso himself ‘It’s difficult to hate a team when they’re being so damn nice to you.’
AG-Systems therefore is about the only thing Harimau has to any sort of serious rivalry as relations with almost every other team are good. Their old allies FEISAR are close friends on the grid, and Harimau has shown great support to their other newcomers to the grid, especially the shaky Mirage squadron. Qirex has also been a surprise recipient of a lot of Harimau’s goodwill, with Felix Levovitch being given a snow leopard cub to raise as an expansion of the Tiger Programme that Harimau ran throughout the FX400 season. Assegai have also been in talks about the possibility of helping the dwindling lion population in Africa, though not every team is as fond of Harimau as they are of everyone else.
Jessie Fairbank, the head of Auricom has called Harimau a ‘fad’ and nothing more, and Piranha have been aggressive towards Harimau’s attempts to gain access to their funded casinos and hotels where it is rumoured they have zoo exhibits with South American panthers and jaguars within.
Allies: FEISAR, Mirage
Rival: AG-Systems
Ship Details:
The H8 craft has undercut one of their rivals in a critical manner – Icaras now no longer has the lightest ship on the grid. Using spaced lattice composite technology, the wider ship is now flatter and sharper, giving it unbelievable handling ability and the lightness means that it is the perfect ship for ambitious jumps in, something that isn’t lost on Harimau’s lead pilot.
The 100% bio-fuel technology is not reaping the benefits it was intended to, and more typical energy sources are proving more efficient – that said with the new regulations, a lot more teams are looking into the options of powering their ships with regenerative technology and Harimau is more than willing to share what it finds, though this has lead to some competition – namely between Qirex and Mirage, as to whose solar-recuperation panels will have the best effect.
Lead Pilot – Foster Goh En Lai (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...gapore.svg.png)
Foster Goh En Lai was a surprise announcement for the lead pilot for the FX500 season after the departure of Zhara Preest of Switzerland, the development pilot that helped to win Harimau their respect in previous seasons. FEISAR’s old protégée returned to Europe to help the team privately, in particular with winter testing in the Alps on the site of the old Cubiss Float track. Given that Harimau always had an affinity with the Sebenco Mountain Range when they were in Makana and even had a small base built there, Preest looks set to help the European squad with preparations for the rumoured FX600 series which will feature races in differing weather conditions.
What it left Harimau with was a slight problem though. Sekhar Sahib had always been a good second pilot, and being very superstitious had begun to believe that his craft was the lucky one, being the second Harimau ship whether it be number five, eight or even when it was sixteen. So when he was offered the place of first pilot, he turned it down point blank, refusing to step from his #2 position. Instead, Harimau had to turn to their third pilot for promotion.
While there is some worry about how he will perform in race trim, the decision was met with widespread enthusiasm. Foster is possibly one of the best-loved pilots on the grid for his do-or-die approach to the tracks and his enthusiastic commentary style whenever he isn’t flying and takes the commentary box for SEA Radio, the main broadcasting channel for much of South-East-Asia. With his willingness to take a big leap in his career and wear the number four on his overalls, respect for the young Singaporean has risen greatly amongst his fellow pilots as well. Caluroso of AG-Systems was amongst the first to clap Goh En Lai on the back when he first heard the news and quite a few others joined in afterwards.
Despite his enthusiasm and support from the fans and team, Foster is known for being terrible at Zone Mode, and his highly-strung attitude will not lend himself to Detonator mode at all. As with their friends Mirage, Harimau may have to rely on their other pilots for expert flying in the Zone Battle events to come.
Second Pilot – Sekhar Sahib (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._India.svg.png)
One of the pilots from the first days of Harimau, Sekhar Sahib is an oddity amongst the grid as being the only non-rookie pilot to have never scored a clean race win. The golds he has won have mostly been due to other pilots’ mistakes, penalties, disqualifications, or the memorable moment when both Mika Repo of EG-X and Vincent Stephenson of Triakis hit a ‘lapped bomb’ on the last corner before the line at Sol 2, allowing Sahib to power through and take the gold, much to the fury of the latter.
The reasoning behind this is irritating to a lot of Harimau fans, but somewhat understandable. Harimau’s first ship in FX250, the H4, was a notoriously fragile beast and in his first ever race, Sekhar’s craft was eliminated by a well-placed shot from Torogu Ukantu’s Auricom and though the H4 had passed most of the necessary safety checks, Sahib was left frightened and shaken by his half-kilometre-long drop off the track until one of the rescue craft could pick him up. Ever since then, he has preferred single events such as time trial, speed lap and zone and lacks confidence in Single Race series.
In particular, Sekhar has developed a deep-seated fear of the Auricom team and doesn’t like to race with them when possible. The team are somewhat concerned about his prospects for Eliminator and his reluctance to take the #1 position has not given him a huge boost of popularity from the public. This looks to be a difficult season for Sahib, with the exception of Zone mode – Sahib is possibly the only pilot on the grid who likes Pro Tozo.
Third Pilot – Ishak Bin Yusof (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...laysia.svg.png)
Bin Yusof comes to the FX500 grid with high expectations, being the reigning champion of the JX250 junior series, using old H4 craft for the Harimau Cadets team to take the championship and earn a place in the three-pilot ‘full’ series. Ishak was named as a ‘next big thing’ in most of the AG racing publications after his win, and his acceptance into the full Harimau team does not come as much of a surprise. However, there is some wariness about his performance by some experts. The following is an extract written for ‘Float Nation’ Magazine by race analyst Tieran Hawker.
“My congratulations go out to Ishak Bin Yusof for a fantastic victory at Talon’s Junction for Harimau Cadets, with which he seals the junior title ahead of main rival Mercutian De Gautet in the Van-Uber. With that performance, it will be no surprise at all if he gets the seat in the FX500 series with the H8. I wouldn’t go so far to say as that he’ll be very good at it though.
Bear in mind that almost all the previous graduates to FX from JX have not had too much of a gap to make – last year’s winner, Gabrielle Zuzovnitch for EG-X, had to move from a modified FX250 machine to an FX400 machine. Given EG-X’s lack of overall development over this time, it did not take too long for the Pole to slip in to the role comfortably. Bin Yusof however has to deal with switching from an H4 ship to the brand new H8, with almost twice the power and half the weight. It’s lucky that he’ll be starting at Venom speed and even then, he’s likely to be taken aback at just how fast the things are.
Not to mention he has to deal with the new modes, which will be completely alien to him, especially Eliminator. Why the organisers of the JX league didn’t think of putting Eliminator events in when they were there in FX400 escapes me. To be honest, Ishak would have been better staying in JX for another season, but the die is rolled. I wish him the best of luck, but I am not putting any money on the fellow.
