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  1. #1
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    Default The Universe of WipEout

    Wow. It's been a very, very long time since I last saw this forum. So, why, you may ask, have I returned? Well, I managed to dig out my old PSVita a couple of weeks ago, and while playing WipEout Pulse, I recalled all the little backstories and fanfictions I'd written over the years for the game's lore. Particularly, I remember reading up on keg_11 and Synergy2048's 'shared universe' of sorts, and thought today, why not create my own? Inspired both by the works of those before me and the ramblings of my childhood past self, I created this spreadsheet detailing the championship winners of AG racing throughout the many years and forms it has weathered. If somebody remembers how to hyperlink, please tell me!

    Championship Standings 2048-2218:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

    2219 FX400 season:
    The Grand 2219 FX400 Pre-Season Round-Up!
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...057#post256057
    2219 FX400 League Championship race reports, round 1: Moa Therma
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...127#post256127

    Famous Rivalries:
    Jarvi Kukkonen vs Luis Mosquera dos Santos, 2106-11:
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...061#post256061
    Carlos Beneto vs Daniel Johnson, 2160:
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...069#post256069

    AG racing history:
    Racing on the final frontier: the history of off-world circuits in AG racing:
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...062#post256062
    Tigron Enterprises and the mystery of the “K-VSR”
    https://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sh...065#post256065

    I'll be back with some more stories from the Championships' long history, hopefully. Enjoy.
    Last edited by NeroIcaras; 25th May 2023 at 11:57 PM.

  2. #2
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    Default

    I'll be looking forward to your writing

  3. #3
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    Default

    Having an issue with the site right now, getting an Internal Server Error every time I try to post. Hm.

    EDIT: this seems to be an error specifically with pasting in my first piece of writing... there can't be a character limit, so I wonder what the problem is.

  4. #4
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    Default

    Does this site not like copy+paste?

  5. #5
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    Default

    *Retrieved from: Sublime And Delicious: The Purest AGRC Monthly Datasheet, issue 924 (printed January 25, 2219)*

    The 2219 FX400 Pre-Season Round-Up!
    (brought to you by Barton Milligan-Kronski)


    Well, here we are again racing fans, back for another season of the FX400! Following last weekend’s pre-season testing exploits at Talon’s Junction, it’s my duty to welcome you to another lovely Monday, wherever you are in the world, with the finalised entry list of teams and pilots for this year of racing, and by all accounts, it’s shaping up to be a hot one. New pilots, new resolve, but it’s still me, the same old Barton Milligan-Kronski, bringing you all the news, science and gossip of everyone’s favourite sport. As always, I've offered a few of my opinions and behind-the-scenes tipoffs - you heard it all here first, readers. Don't forget that this issue of Sublime and Delicious is brought to you by our sponsors at JOY Noodle Bar: if you live in the UK, Germany, France or the Netherlands, scan the included coupon code at any JOY Noodle Bar and you'll receive 50% off any and all orders!

    (Teams listed in order of 2218 championship standings)

    1: AG-Systems

    They’re the post-Collapse era’s most successful team, the current championship defenders, and AG-SYS show no signs of slowing down. While Piranha and Qirex challenged hard for the 2218 title, the ice-cool Icelander Dagur Stefansson managed to pilot the AG-Systems to four victories over fifteen grueling rounds of the championship. Veteran pilot and AG Systems legend Ryosuke Koyamada retired at the end of the year, ending a 21-year career in AG racing. With an unexpected shortage of young pilots, AG-Systems have been left scrambling to find someone to fill his role. Still, with a top craft and the highest-rated pilot, AG-Systems will be hard to beat this year.

    Lead Pilot: Dagur Stefansson
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: STEF189.11.06.82
    Age: 26 (b. 17 December 2192)
    Birthplace: Reykjavik, Iceland
    Race Number: 91
    Championship Titles: 2 (2215, 2218)

    Born and raised as the only son of an accountant in Reykjavik, Iceland, Stefansson was a natural-born AG pilot, winning both the Pan-Nordic Cup and the Northern European junior championship titles in 2210, at the age of just 17. After a championship victory in the 2212 JX200 feeder series, he was signed for AG-Systems and quickly rose through the ranks, outperforming world champion and veteran Ryosuke Koyamada in his rookie season. Winning both the 2215 and 2218 championship titles, there seems to be little that fazes the ‘Iceman’ of the FX400.

    Second Pilot: Shotaro Katanosaka
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: KATA134.56.67.33
    Age: 20 (b. 2 April 2198)
    Birthplace: Uenohara, Japan
    Race Number: 6
    Championship Titles: 0

    Katanosaka is the latest graduate of AG-Systems’ prestigious piloting academy. An aggressive and risky pilot, he learned to pilot on the dilapidated and dangerous streets of Yokohama after it was abandoned by the Japanese government, and credits his cornering precision with years of experience using airbrakes only. Though his temper got the better of him during his JX200 campaign last year, preventing him from winning the title, extensive anger management programs seemed to bear fruit in pre-season testing. Big things are expected of this promising rookie.


    2. Piranha Advancements

    After a season of slow building improvement from the midfield during the FX300 era, the legendary Piranha team emerged as consistent challengers to the FX400 title, winning it in 2210 and 2216 with famed French pilot Sabrina ‘Silver Streak’ Martinique. The Brazilian outfit have consistently produced some of the league’s fastest craft and have both the facilities and technical staff to back it up. Their weakness lies in the hunt for a second pilot. Ever since Esteban Mosele, their long-standing pilot since the FX300 era, quit at the end of 2212, Piranha haven’t been able to retain a second pilot for more than two seasons. Unless they strike gold soon, it’s going to affect their championship hopes, and Silver Streak won’t fly forever...

    Lead Pilot: Sabrina Martinique
    Factfile:
    Age: 34 (born 9 June 2185)
    Pilot ID: MART205.17.53.22
    Birthplace: Lyon, France
    Race Number: 22
    Championship Titles: 2 (2210, 2216)

    Sabrina ‘Silver Streak’ Martinique is widely regarded as one of the most marketable AG pilots on the planet today, and probably off of it as well. After placing consistently highly in European junior championships, she was fast-tracked into FEISAR’s Pilots for the Future program; in a shocking twist of events, she was expelled from the academy for mysterious and still-unknown reasons, joining Icaras in 2207. A reasonably successful time at the British squad got her head-hunted by Piranha: she signed for the Brazilian team in 2210, winning the title the same year. She may be showing her age a little, but judging from the screams of “Silver Streak!” at Moa Therma last year, her many fans are no less enthusiastic.

    Second Pilot: Laszlo Gonda
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: GOND290.98.32.88
    Age: 24 (b. 3 January 2195)
    Birthplace: Miskolc, Hungary
    Race Number: 45
    Championship Titles: 0

    The brutish, hulking figure of Gonda was never a welcome figure in the AG paddock last year, often answering datacast reporters with bristling glares, one-word answers or (most commonly) slightly murderous silence. Piloting his Piranha with intense aggression and a heavy emphasis on weapon use, Gonda’s 6ft 7in frame seemed almost too large for his ship’s cockpit. Despite being a rookie last year, Gonda surprised many analysts when he finished 7th in the championship, just twelve points behind leading Triakis pilot Kate Partington. The surly Hungarian will be looking to improve in 2219: could Piranha finally have found themselves a stable second pilot?


    3. Qirex-RD

    Without a doubt the most successful team in AG racing history, Qirex has been a consistent presence since the resurgence of professional AG racing in 2197 as they look to put the dark days of the Fourth Russian Revolution behind them. While lacking the all-conquering domination they held in the 21st century, long-standing lead pilot Nadia Elenova took the 2211 championship title home to Moscow and has been a consistent front-runner ever since. It’s no secret that Qirex have had the chassis to seal the title for years now: however, second pilot Diego Gomez has been struggling recently, and Qirex’s interest in the Romanian FEISAR pilot Viktor Zamfirescu could put the team’s already fragile harmony into disarray.

    Lead Pilot: Nadia Elenova
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: ELEN367.72.33.49
    Age: 32 (b. 15 October 2186)
    Birthplace: Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
    Race Number: 8
    Championship Titles: 1 (2211)

    Nadia Elenova is perhaps the most famous Qirex pilot of the last century, and certainly the one with the best chance of reclaiming the team’s past glory. Starting out as a prodigious rookie in 2207 after handily dominating the 2206 JX200 title, Elenova quickly made a name for herself by scoring a number of podiums and wins in her early career. This culminated in her narrow victory over Harimau’s Connor Kelly for the 2211 championship: the Russian pilot has been a staple of the podium ever since, although the unreliability of the Qirex craft has prevented her from winning another title. Her fast friendship with Kate Partington has made her even more popular, even as she dismisses datasheet speculations with a wave of her hand and a tight-lipped grin.

    Second Pilot: Diego Gomez
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: GOME352.41.02.86
    Age: 29 (b. 30 March 2189)
    Birthplace: La Plata, Argentina
    Race Number: 53
    Championship Titles: 0

    A methodical and measured second pilot who broke away from his Auricom origins, Gomez has been playing rear-gunner to Elenova’s title fights for three seasons. However, his calm approach to piloting has made him unpopular with Qirex fans, executives and pilot ranking tables: more often than not Elenova has had to bite back withering remarks regarding Gomez’s mediocrity. He’s been taking his Qirex seat for granted for years now, but Qirex’s talks with FEISAR over signing Viktor Zamfirescu for 2220 have sent a clear message to Gomez: either improve, or hope you dodge the doorframe when you’re unceremoniously booted through it.


    4. Assegai Developments

    The ‘Spears’ as Assegai are affectionately known among fellow teams and racing fans, are one of the modern era’s greatest success stories. After Piranha sold Assegai back to the United African Nations in 2181, the team spent much of post-Collapse years heavily involved in the amateur racing scene. For the FX era, Assegai reforged themselves into a team worthy of their F7200 halcyon days, often taking race wins from the bigger teams and winning three championship titles in 2205, 2207 and 2212. However, in the last couple of seasons, their aging pilot line-up and reported budget cuts have seen Assegai slip from champions to midfield leaders. Assegai will be hoping fresh blood in the form of a new pilot and staff can reinvigorate their title hopes.

    Lead Pilot: Walter Lahtinen
    Factfile:
    Age: 38 (b. 16 May 2180)
    Pilot ID: LAHT408.35.27.62
    Birthplace: Helsinki, Finland
    Race Number: 80
    Championship Titles: 1 (2212)

    Critics have been pointing out Walter Lahtinen’s increasing age for several years now, expecting a decline in form, but the affable and friendly Finn is as talented as he’s ever been. Although his transfer from Qirex in 2209 was derided by critics, his loyalty to Assegai - not to mention his 2212 championship victory - is indicative of his immense developmental talents, as well as his trust in the African team. Despite turning 39 this year, Lahtinen is still very much a front-runner, and is one of the FX400’s era’s most consistent pilots. His mentoring capabilities will doubtless be vital in his rookie teammate Ogunwe’s development.

    Second Pilot: Kelvin Ogunwe
    Factfile:
    Age: 25 (b. 24 June 2193)
    Pilot ID: OGUN444.06.57.19
    Birthplace: Mandera, Kenya
    Race Number: 64
    Championship Titles: 0

    Imposingly tall yet deceivingly soft-spoken, Kelvin Ogunwe comes not from the globe-spanning JX200 league or the extensive number of African regional championships, but from an altogether different sphere of AG racing: African desert endurance. Since his youthful days growing up in Mandera Province, Ogunwe would accompany his elder brother on days-long races across the savannahs and plains of Kenya, relying as much on navigation and stamina as outright speed. His results from the Assegai simulator apparently show great promise: this unorthodox rookie will certainly be one to watch.


    5. Triakis Industries

    Australian weaponry conglomerate Triakis were another of the new teams present on the grid in the inaugural FX300 championship season, and were immediately successful, winning several races throughout the FX300 and eventually claiming the 2206 championship title. However, a scathing espionage scandal soon emerged with Triakis revealed to have been using a banned reverse-inertia deceleration system, and the 2206 championship was subsequently awarded to AG Systems. A title in 2208 courtesy of American pilot Frederick Kinney gained back some of their respect. The Australian team have surged to the top of the midfield in recent years, while the developing media glamour around lead pilot Kate Partington has transformed Triakis’s PR from a po-faced militaristic outfit into one of the League’s more popular teams.

    Lead Pilot: Kate Partington
    Factfile:
    Age: 25 (b. 24 August 2193)
    Pilot ID: PART592.10.38.99
    Birthplace: Perth, Australia
    Race Number: 15
    Championship Titles: 0

    Partington’s rise to prominence as a voice of the AG racing community cannot be understated. From her rookie season with Auricom in 2216, the fast-talking and faster-flying Australian has been one of the AG paddock’s friendliest and most popular faces, with several gossip datacasts speculating on Partington and Nadia Elenova’s drunken party after last year's championship finale in the Cayman Islands. After an acrimonious contract termination with Auricom, Partington has been leading Triakis with gusto, scoring her first win at Arc Prime last year and targeting a top five championship position this year.

    Second Pilot: Theodore Roland
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: ROLA533.68.44.71
    Age: 21 (b. 12 February 2197)
    Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
    Race Number: 39
    Championship Titles: 0

    It’s hard to tell whether the buzz around French-Canadian rookie Roland is legitimate furore over his impressive collection of North American junior championship trophies, his handy fourth-place campaign in last year’s JX200 championship, or modeling companies and starstruck teenagers attempting to catch a glimpse of him. Handsome yet soft-spoken, the quietly embarrassed Roland seems at odds with the loud and sociable Partington; retiring Triakis pilot Giuseppe Romano described Roland as one to watch, although whether he too was enraptured by Roland’s attractiveness was a hotly debated point.


    6. Harimau International

    A relative newcomer to the AG racing scene following their founding in 2177, humanitarian organisation Harimau nevertheless silenced the critics with a respectable showing in the midfield in the early days of the FX300. Seeking a true elevation to top-team status, Harimau controversially signed Australian world champion Connor Kelly from Qirex, which led to four titles from 2203 to 2217. Their ongoing feud with Qirex still continues today, and Harimau’s biofuel-powered craft have been taking it to the big teams for more than a decade. After last year’s drop from third to sixth in the rankings, second pilot Hayamato has been fired following his abysmal performance. The question on everyone’s mind is; will the 2219 season be Kelly’s last?

    Lead Pilot: Connor Kelly
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: KELL612.73.81.04
    Age: 42 (b. 9 September 2177)
    Birthplace: Brisbane, Australia
    Race Number: 27
    Championship Titles: 6 (2197, 2199, 2203, 2209, 2214, 2217)

    Is there a more iconic face in modern AG racing than Connor Kelly? The living legend of an Australian continues his reputation as one of the greatest pilots of all time, displaying a level of skill that can contend for championships well into his forties. After success in Australasian amateur leagues following the Collapse, Kelly was approached by Qirex scouts prior to the 2197 season, and duly won the first professional AG racing championship in almost thirty years. His laid-back, ‘surfer-dude’ personality, loyalty to Harimau and admiration for their environmental goals make him a fan-favourite on the circuit, but 2219 is rumored to be the final season in his 22-year career.

    Second Pilot: Dakota Harding
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: HARD682.54.30.48
    Age: 18 (b. 29 November 2200)
    Birthplace: Christchurch, New Zealand
    Race Number: 73
    Championship Titles: 0

    While Australia is globally recognized as a birthplace of AG racing legends, New Zealand is far less so. Dakota Harding is only the third pilot from New Zealand to compete at the top level of AG racing, after double world champion Waisake Tomataeku and unlucky Icaras pilot Alison Turkington. Somewhat awkward in the face of the press, Harding’s impressive underdog showing for Harimau in last year’s JX200 championship speaks for itself, as does a personal recommendation by Connor Kelly himself. She is also the first pilot born in the 23rd century to compete at the top-level of AG racing, and will be 18 years and 107 days old at the 2219 season opener in March.


    7. FEISAR

    The only team in the long history of AG racing to have competed in every season of the championship, FEISAR have been a consistent midfield runner since the FX300. Able to snatch a few wins on the league’s more technical circuits, FEISAR have doubtless been helped by their ever-changing roster of finely honed talents from around Europe and the world. After their last title nearly two decades ago, FEISAR are content with a solid pilot line-up and a craft that can hold its own in the crowded midpack. Looks like the pan-European team will need every bit of that young talent: with longtime pilot Linus Nystrom announcing retirement from AG racing at the end of 2219, and young second pilot Viktor Zamfirescu in line for a Qirex seat, FEISAR are certainly due for a shake-up.

    Lead Pilot: Linus Nystrom
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: NYST755.01.36.70
    Age: 36 (b. 18 February 2182)
    Birthplace: Gothenburg, Sweden
    Race Number: 62
    Championship Titles: 0

    Sweden’s Linus Nystrom has been one of FEISAR’s most loyal pilots, cementing 2219 as his ninth and final season with the European squad. After a successful 2218 season in which he was one of the midfield’s most consistent point-scorers, Nystrom hopes to go out with just as much success in his final year. FEISAR will certainly miss his assured manner and patience with the young pilots - although his teammate, Viktor Zamfirescu, is unlikely to miss him quite as much, if the constant references to ‘Grandpa Dustyballs’ from his team radio are anything to go by...

    Second Pilot: Viktor Zamfirescu
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: ZAMF715.82.16.51
    Age: 22 (b. 13 January 2197)
    Birthplace: Brasov, Romania
    Race Number: 55
    Championship Titles: 0

    After a rookie season that quietly impressed the grid, you could be forgiven for thinking Viktor Zamfirescu is well on his way to a lasting spot in the ever-changing second FEISAR race seat. However, you’d be wrong, and probably told to get out from the rock you’ve been living under. The fiery Romanian’s mean right hook, disproportionately violent response to jokes about his short stature and continually appalling attitude to racing journalists have forced FEISAR’s hand: this will be his last season in blue and yellow. Let’s hope it’s one to remember, and not for all the wrong reasons. (This reporter would also like to add that Zamfirescu’s pineapple, which hit AG Today’s Karina Shah on the head at last year’s Tech de Ra press conference, was beautifully thrown. Just a completely impartial observation.)


    8. Icaras

    Icaras has been far more successful in the last decade and half than history would have guessed. After celebrating even finishing a race as a penny-scrounging backmarker back in the F7200, the rebuilt Icaras rejoined AG racing in 2203, much to the ire of former team operators FEISAR. With a far more stable budget, the plucky British team have been a familiar face in the midfield ever since. An eternal PR dream, Icaras proudly boasts one of the biggest and most passionate fan bases in the FX400, with the ‘Waxwings’ team fanzine (coincidentally) outselling FEISAR’s own by a factor of two-to-one. 2213 champion Nicoline Larsen starts her eighth consecutive season with the team, while British pilot Alannia Porter has recovered from her serious crash in Basilico last season and is eager for a more successful 2219.

    Lead Pilot: Nicoline Larsen
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: LARS863.20.37.59
    Age: 28 (b. 23 July 2190)
    Birthplace: Rodekro, Denmark
    Race Number: 20
    Championship Titles: 1 (2213)

    Nicoline Larsen is perhaps the ultimate example of loyalty restricting talent. After being kicked out of FEISAR after her rookie season in 2211, Larsen joined Icaras, and after a respectable 2212 season, the feisty Dane accomplished a fairytale victory, winning Icaras' first and only title in 2213. Despite many offers from front running teams, Larsen has repeatedly and pointedly refused to leave the British squad, constantly praising the team’s work ethic and loyal staff in datacast interviews. As we all know, loyalty doesn’t translate into ranking points. Larsen is turning 29 this year: her prime years as a pilot could be starting to slip away while she pushes for results from a team rooted in the midfield.

    Second Pilot: Alannia Porter
    Pilot ID: PORT844.60.29.05
    Age: 19 (b. 2 December 2199)
    Birthplace: Exeter, United Kingdom
    Race Number: 3
    Championship Titles: 0

    Alannia Porter surprised many analysts last year when she was signed to Icaras at a fresh-faced 18 years and 48 days old: one of the youngest pilots in league history, and without the prodigious junior league results to back it up. Porter went on to have a solid, if unspectacular rookie season, with the highlight being a 7th place finish in Tech de Ra. Excitable and endearingly enthusiastic, Porter was soon popular with FX400 fans and datacast reporters alike. Unfortunately, she missed the final two rounds of the 2218 season after being badly burned in a crash in Basilico. The AGRC and Icaras are still looking into the suspicious damage and failure of Porter's AG repulsor drive, with various conspiracy theories still flooding the datasheets.


    9. Goteki 45

    The team hailing from the artificial Hawaiian island of Makana continue to build on their long and often-controversial legacy in AG racing. After the bombing of their operations base in 2137 and revival in 2202, the modern Goteki 45 have done their utmost to distance themselves from the bloodthirsty legacy of the past. It’s a well-received and applauded philosophy among fans and racing historians alike, but this pacifistic approach has led to the team occupying the bottom positions in the championship more often than not. Despite a substantial budget, Goteki 45 have never scored higher than seventh in the championship since their revival: perhaps it’s finally time to fight fire with fire.

    Lead Pilot: Christopher Farrell
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: FARR903.74.11.56
    Age: 29 (b. 13 October 2189)
    Birthplace: Liverpool, United Kingdom
    Race Number: 49
    Championship Titles: 0

    Christopher Farrell’s large stature and rugged features (including a broken nose) belie the Goteki pilot’s calm nature and affable demeanor. The British pilot first flew for Icaras in 2215, and after two mildly successful years in the midpack, he negotiated a move to Goteki 45. It was the surprise of the season when 2218 was Goteki’s most successful season in half a decade: Farrell scored 41 points, including Goteki’s first podium since 2213 at Vertica. However, when asked about Icaras, Farrell’s brow grew uncharacteristically furrowed and he began to breathe rapidly. Eventually, he had to leave the interview room for several minutes while this reporter was berated by a Goteki 45 rep.

    Second Pilot: Samara Ilukyhina
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: IILU994.43.76.97
    Age: 23 (b. 7 March 2195)
    Birthplace: Modesto, Makana
    Race Number: 35
    Championship Titles: 0

    Born in Makana to a family of Russian immigrants, Samara Ilukyhina grew up close to the circuit from a young age. The stink of repulsor drive coolant and turbine fuel reportedly drove the young Ilukyhina to illegal street racing in the alleyways of Modesto, where she rapidly gained a reputation for fantastic airbraking skill and an unsettlingly fearless approach to piloting. Picked up by Qirex scouts, Ilukyhina flew for the Russian team as she developed her talents, picking up several junior victories, last year’s JX200 title and uncanny weapon accuracy along the way. On loan to Goteki 45 for two years, Qirex will be eagerly watching her this season to see if she’s fit to challenge Zamfirescu for that coveted Qirex seat.


    10. Auricom Research Industries

    Auricom are a team with a storied history in AG racing, boasting the third-highest championship tally in AGRC history. This experience unfortunately hasn’t translated into success in the modern era, with the team being outgunned and outmatched by the newer teams and slowly sliding to the back of the grid. A once-proud team with a legacy rapidly slipping out of sight, Auricom are the only team of the original four (AG-Sys, Qirex, themselves and FEISAR) to have not won a championship in the post-Collapse era, with last year marking half a century since Auricom’s victory with Pascale Rouser in 2168. Will 2219 see the team’s redemption, or will they finally fade into obscurity?

    Lead Pilot: Sarah Fischer
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: FISC104.68.23.50
    Age: 30 (b. 30 July 2188)
    Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
    Race Number: 34
    Championship Titles: 0

    Sarah Fischer returns for a second season with the American squad, after a reasonably successful season where she massively outperformed former world champion teammate Frederick Kinney. After a tumultuous career flying for three different teams in five years, Fischer says she’s hoping for a more stable environment at Auricom. Famously standoffish, Fischer’s no-nonsense attitude has won her few fans, but her success in a vastly underperforming Auricom craft speaks for itself: she could be a real dark horse this year, if Auricom’s rumoured improvements are to be believed.

    Second Pilot: Isaiah Holtman
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: HOLT109.50.31.07
    Age: 23 (b. 1 May 2196)
    Birthplace: Burbank, United States of America
    Race Number: 79
    Championship Titles: 0

    Brought in to replace the retiring World Champion Frederick Kinney, whose disastrous one-year return to the sport remains a stain on the American’s legacy, Holtman is something of an unknown quantity. His JX200 campaigns have been surprisingly successful, but he seems to lack the aggressive edge to truly elevate himself to top pilot status. A firm believer in Gangoism, the religion founded by former Van-Uber pilot Songen Grey, Holtman is laidback to the point of being near-comatose, a trait that seems to irritate his highly strung teammate Fischer. One wonders if the constant haze of hypnocil smoke is strictly for ‘medical reasons’ as he claims…


    11. EG-X Technologies

    After former F9000 teams Xios and EG-R merged to form EG-X, the team quickly and unexpectedly rose to become a dark horse in the early days of the FX400, winning several races and often contending for championships with a combination of Chinese industrial power and Finnish technical know-how. However, the unexplained deaths of both their illegally cyber-augmented pilots at the Finnish round of the 2212 championship resulted in EG-X being majorly fined and barred from entering either the 2213 or 2214 championships. Since returning, they have remained a transient backmarker at best. Conspiracy theorists say EG-R used EG-X as a platform to continue its illegal research from the F9000 years, and even the mildest of critics are hard-pressed to disagree.

    Lead Pilot: Ling Guowei
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: GOUW112.24.66.89
    Age: unknown
    Birthplace: Gusev City, Mars
    Race Number: 85
    Championship Titles: 0

    Guowei has been flying for EG-X since their debut in the 2216 season, and despite the limitations of the post-ban EG-X team and chassis, they’ve flown the craft with impressive aplomb. They are also the first Martian pilot in league history, hailing from Gusev City. Near-mute and mysterious, repeated attempts by the FX400 Race Commission and AG journalists to obtain information have been met with dead silence, and it appears despite several offers, Guowei has never even considered leaving EG-X for another team. One wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that EG-R’s experiments may not be over…

    Second Pilot: Luka Rautio
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: RAUT118.79.28.96
    Age: unknown
    Birthplace: unknown city, Finland
    Race Number: 97
    Championship Titles: 0

    Another rookie, Rautio has been flying behind the scenes in their test pilot role since the team fired former test pilot Seok-woo Jin in 2217. Willowy and pale, the ghost-like Finn’s appearance is well-matched to his personality. Almost nothing is known about him, and whenever he is asked about his past, Rautio seems to suddenly lose focus and immediately change the topic. EG-X has responded to the Race Commission’s requests for information by claiming that Rautio “suffered an extremely traumatic incident in a Finnish weather generation station” before working for the team. If that’s true, I’ll eat my own cybernetic implants.


    12. Mirage Racing

    Mirage are the newest AG racing team to enter the big leagues. Hailing from the Arabian Coalition and in partnership with the Middle East's largest technology firm, MAGEC, big things were expected of Mirage. However, despite a capable budget, one of the world’s most extensive anti-gravity research facilities and a rapidly improving crew roster, an underpowered craft and internal politics have made scoring points a rare occasion for Mirage since they joined the league in 2210. For a team with such a highly-rated junior academy, the top-flight squad has fallen well short of its mark.

    Lead Pilot: Mustafa Abd Al-Habib
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: ALHA123.39.82.13
    Age: 35 (b. 7 November 2183)
    Birthplace: Cairo, Egypt
    Race Number: 50
    Championship Titles: 0

    Mustafa Abd Al-Habib’s career thus far has been remarkably unsuccessful: in four seasons with Mirage, the Egyptian has failed to score a single top 8 finish, his few scant points coming from rare appearances in the last few points positions. First and foremost a development pilot, Al-Habib has languished at the bottom of the pilot rankings for years. Sullen and reclusive, he’s far from popular among both fans and his fellow pilots. Rumour has it that unless this season sees a drastic improvement, Al-Habib’s tenure with Mirage may be at an end…

    Second Pilot: Ahsan Khamis
    Factfile:
    Pilot ID: KHAM126.75.00.58
    Age: 19 (b. 28 June 2199)
    Birthplace: The Line II, Arabian Coalition
    Race Number: 18
    Championship Titles: 0

    Young Ahsan Khamis is the newest recruit from MAGEC’s extensive pilot academy in Dubai. Hailing from the futuristic monolith city Line II on the Arabian coast, Khamis’s grandfather was a pilot in the Arabian unification wars of the 2170s, and his father worked as an AG technical advisor to MAGEC themselves. Thus, Khamis carries a family legacy into the top echelon of AG racing. Scoring highly on MAGEC’s extensive piloting aptitude tests, hopes are high that this young rookie might finally prove Mirage's hard work to be successful. However, his seeming fear of weapon usage in pre-season testing could be a serious detriment to his performance unless he can get it under control.
    Last edited by NeroIcaras; 26th May 2023 at 12:31 AM. Reason: formatting issues

  6. #6
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    Hello again to anybody (if there's anybody) reading this! I decided to write a slightly more personal and close-up account of one of the great rivalries of the F5000 era: Qirex's bombastic Finn, Jarvi Kukkonen, versus the mysterious and calculating Brazilian Piranha pilot, Luis Mosquera dos Santos. All content is my own fictional imagining of the WipEout universe: please don't conflate these for real, lore-based characters. While they do exist within the WipEout universe, they are entirely fictional characters of my own creation. With that said, enjoy!

    Famous Rivalries: Jarvi Kukkonen vs Luis Mosquera dos Santos

    “...and that’s Qirex’s young protege - that’s Kukkonen - he’s going for the Piranha! Can he, will he…yes! With inches to spare, the crazy Finn scrapes past Lin! Jarvi Kukkonen wins the first race of his career, no doubt the first of many, here at Vostok Island!”
    - Vostok Island race commentary, 2105 F5000 season rd. 7 of 8

    “...dos Santos wasn’t a name on anyone’s lips last year, but everyone sure as hell knows him now. With his win last week at Sagarmatha, the question everyone’s asking is not if, but when dos Santos will win a title, and who’s going to be his competition?”
    - The Official F5000 League Datasheet, vol. 22, issue 4 (April 2106)

    The early days of the F5000 saw the continuation of the titanic battle between old foes Qirex and Auricom. From the league’s inaugural season in 2085 to 2100, Qirex and Auricom won six titles apiece, with AG Systems scraping two titles courtesy of Masahiro Tanaguchi and famed French-Canadian pilot Lucy Lavoie. Piranha, of course, won their debut showing with Xueyi Lin and the dominant 2097-season chassis before reverting to a more standardized craft for the following year. German pilot Pascal Engelhart retired at the end of the 2100 season after winning five world titles; the most since Kel Solaar retired nearly forty years earlier. The status of his titles (three for Qirex and two for Auricom) left the former team resentful of his exit and the latter wary of his sudden defection: the German later claimed the constant suspicion from Auricom and the bitterness of Qirex as the reason for his retirement.

    “I am simply a pilot; an uncommonly gifted and lucky pilot, perhaps, but I am still a human being inside my g-suit and cockpit harness. The vitriol between these two great names has driven me from this sport I used to love; it has to stop, and it has to stop now.” Engelhart said in a press conference the following year.

    Indeed, as more and more old faces of the F3600 and F5000 retired, it looked as if that was it for the old Auricom vs. Qirex rivalry. Piranha returned in full force with Portugal’s Ariel Monteiro, and the rapid improvement of AG-Systems saw Frenchman Nicolas Renaudin win four titles in seven years. While Auricom were doomed to languish in the midfield for another two decades, Qirex’s resurgence came much sooner - and against a most unlikely opponent.

    Jarvi Kukkonen was born an only child in the port city of Jakobstad, Finland on July 10th, 2079: his father was a Finnish Navy patrolman, and from a young age Jarvi took after his father and developed an interest in mechanics. By the time he was ten, he had assembled his own boat, and would regularly race around Jakobstad harbour at breakneck speeds. One day, while he was unloading a trawler at the docks, young Jarvi caught sight of an F5000 league race on a fisherman’s holo-unit. Entranced by the lurid lights and glittering speed of AG racing, he ran straight home and begged his parents to let him buy a junior craft, and start competing in the local cadet leagues; he’d certainly saved up enough money from his time at the docks. To his surprise, both parents said no; his father considered it a frivolous, daredevil’s sport, and they were deadset on getting Kukkonen into what they considered an honorable career in the Navy. It was clear they weren’t going to budge. So he bought a craft in secret and stashed it in an abandoned warehouse across town. Taking the alias of Juha Mikkelsen (an old school-friend, he would later reveal), Kukkonen began winning enough cadet category races - both sanctioned and illegal - across Finland to amass a sizable nest egg. On his seventeenth birthday, he returned to his home for a final, bitter goodbye to his parents, and left Jakobstad for good. He never spoke to his parents again, to the best of everyone’s knowledge - why he refused contact remains a mystery.

    Originally aiming for FEISAR’s Study HQ (then located in Augsburg, Germany), Kukkonen soon realised that the competition was too well stacked, and the European team’s results far too lacking for his liking. Over the next three years, Kukkonen (still under his Mikkelsen alias) won several junior trophies and championships, including the 2099 edition of the Madrid-Riga endurance. The attention of the AG racing world was piqued; who was this mysterious stranger, laying waste to the European racing scene and promptly vanishing? That question was swiftly answered by 2103, when Kukkonen appeared on the F5000 grid, racing not for FEISAR but for Qirex! Although he joined during a short slump in the team’s fortunes, Kukkonen put up some respectable performances against world champion teammate Ariel Monteiro. By the time of his first race win at the end of the 2105 season, the Finn was already hotly-tipped as a future world champion.

    Enter his nemesis, Brazilian pilot Luis Mosquera dos Santos. Born in the favelas of Manaus, dos Santos gave his birthday as February 22nd, 2083; however, significant doubt over the legality of his identification papers leaves most information about dos Santos himself as an uncertainty. The Brazilian remained tight-lipped about his past throughout his career, and it was only after his death in 2174 that details of his misspent youth among the Brazilian criminal underground emerged. Dos Santos had been a getaway pilot and smuggler for the Brazilian communist triad A Mao Que Agarra (“The Grasping Hand”). As a piloting prodigy, the young dos Santos was able to carry large quantities of illegal goods across South America in record time, and his youth made him much less likely to arouse suspicion. Little is known of how dos Santos split from the triad; however, it is thought that a failed plot to detonate a ‘backpack’ miniature nuclear device in Sao Paulo in June 2102 resulted in the fracturing of the group. Nevertheless, a few months later dos Santos was able to register for Piranha Advancements under a false identity along with his older brother, Guilherme. It is still unknown whether Luis Mosquera dos Santos is his real name, or whether the Brazilian operated under an alias for his entire life.

    After acing Piranha’s piloting exam, the mysterious and enigmatic dos Santos trained in earnest, and was eventually called up to pilot Piranha’s 2105 craft alongside aging champion Xueyi Lin. Pairing an established talent with such a wildcard young rookie seemed a strange decision. While Lin won that year’s world championship (her last of two titles), dos Santos remained fairly anonymous all year, his best finishes a trio of third places in Canada, Germany and Ukraine. While his brother Guilherme was well-liked among the pit crew he found himself in, dos Santos was a far more taciturn individual, preferring solitude. One of his chief technicians was quoted as saying “...I have no idea how he responds to our feedback so well, considering I’ve heard him speak maybe twenty words all year.”

    Unbeknownst to dos Santos, Kukkonen and their respective teams, the stage was set for a rivalry that would define both their careers for decades to come.

    The 2106 season was expected to be a straight fight between Qirex and Piranha; Kukkonen would be fighting his Austrian teammate Pieter Wuelfrath for the title, while dos Santos was expected to form line astern behind another title bid for Lin. Talon’s Reach, the season opener, was a rather uneventful affair; the Qirex pilots finished first and second, with Lin bringing up the final podium spot and Santos scraping into fifth behind the AG-Sys of Nicolas Renaudin. The Nepalese round of the championship is where things got interesting. After Lin was eliminated by an early plasma bolt from Kukkonen, dos Santos embarked on a rampage of revenge against the Finn; the two of them battled for lap after lap over the lead of the race, neither giving an inch. Eventually, the Brazilian fired a missile at point-blank range into the left hull of his opponent’s Qirex: Kukkonen, heavily damaged and dropping back to third, could only watch as dos Santos took a dominant maiden victory. Following that round of the championship, the rankings looked like this:

    1. P. WUELFRATH (AUT): 17pts.
    Qirex-RD
    2. L. M. DOS SANTOS (BRA): 12pts.
    Piranha Adv.
    3. J. KUKKONEN (FIN): 12pts.
    Qirex-RD
    4. N. RENAUDIN (FRA) 6pts.
    AG-Systems

    Kukkonen, an unusual hothead among his Finnish contemporaries, was quick to rage at dos Santos for his unnecessary closeness while firing the missile; the unflappable Brazilian replied that the Finn should do his talking “on the track, where it really counts.” This set the tone for the rest of the season: the Finn and Brazilian would engage in a year-long feud, exchanging weapon fire and terse words all season long. Despite winning two more races, Kukkonen’s constant fighting meant he was unable to truly challenge his teammate Wuelfrath, who walked away with the 2106 title by 55 points to the Finn’s 48. Of particular note was a lengthy and desperate battle between dos Santos and Kukkonen at Gare d’Europa; with Wuelfrath a distant fourth, the two pilots were once again fighting for the lead. Both on the edge of their shield energy levels, dos Santos knew his time was up when he saw Kukkonen’s rocket appear in his rear cameras. Instead of attempting to dodge the blast, dos Santos slowed and spun his craft around mid-corner, so the explosion not only destroyed his craft, but took Kukkonen’s Qirex with it. Despite an official enquiry ruling dos Santos’s maneuver “legal evasive action”, Kukkonen viewed the incident as “the cheating that robbed me of a championship” and vowed revenge against dos Santos. Heading into 2107, the message was clear: this was personal.

    The year was dominated by hard-fought, venomous battles. Once again, the two pilots took more points off each other than they could afford, allowing Renaudin to win his fourth and final title for AG-Systems. Kukkonen became famous for his lengthy tirades against dos Santos and the Piranha team’s “perversion” of AG racing’s purity and precision, while the seldom-spoken dos Santos often remarked bitterly about how the lead pilot of one of AG racing’s greatest teams was mewling like a frightened kitten about aggression that was fully legal, as per the Race Commission's lengthy regulations. Datacast ratings for both Piranha and Qirex were sky-high, and both teams showed blistering speed in pre-season testing: 2108 was to be the grudge match between Kukkonen and dos Santos, and everyone knew it.

    At Talon’s Reach, the two of them streaked off into the distance, exchanging fastest lap after fastest lap. The Brazilian pilot held off his Finnish rival to win that day, only to find the situation reversed in Sagarmatha as Kukkonen won by over half a minute, one of the largest winning margins in league history. The next round, at the Valparaiso circuit in Chile, was widely regarded as dos Santos’s favourite track, and the closest thing the Piranha team had to a home crowd. Perhaps that’s why Kukkonen seemed to take it as his mission to ensure dos Santos never reached the podium. Barely a corner of the circuit went by without the two exchanging weapon fire; dos Santos ended the race in a retrieval pod, while Kukkonen barely limped home to a fifth-place finish. AG-Systems pilot Russell Cox managed to take the race win; it would be the only race of the 2108 season not won by either Kukkonen or dos Santos.

    The rest of the season was a dogfight between the two sworn enemies. Kukkonen would win in France and at Vostok Island, his self-proclaimed ‘favourite’ circuit. Dos Santos would strike back with further wins in Germany and Ukraine. Soon, the season finale rolled around at Spilskinanke, and the ranking tables were practically aflame with tension:

    1. L. M. DOS SANTOS (BRA): 51pts.
    Piranha Adv.
    2. J. KUKKONEN (FIN): 51pts.
    Qirex-RD
    3. P. WUELFRATH (AUT): 35pts.
    Qirex-RD
    4. R. COX (GBR): 28pts.
    AG-Systems

    This was a level of closeness the championship hadn’t seen since the Lavoie/Engelhart battles nearly two decades earlier, and the first time the championship had been tied going into the final round since 2091. Datacast ratings were practically booted into the stratosphere; an estimated 4.3 billion people tuned in around the world (and off of it) for the epic conclusion to the 2108 season.

    Dos Santos had qualified on pole position, but Kukkonen was right next to him, and as usual, the two rocketed away from the rest of the grid, setting lap times several seconds faster than even their teammates. Exchanging speed pad after speed pad, weapon after weapon, the two pilots were separated by mere tenths of a second, even as they were fifteen seconds clear of Wuelfrath and Cox battling away for third. A missile followed by a barrage of mines from the Piranha seemed to leave Kukkonen a few seconds adrift, but the singularly focused Finn would set four fastest laps of the race - including a Spilskinanke lap record - in succession to get himself right back onto dos Santos’s rear thrusters. They entered the final lap together, with dos Santos holding a scant 0.06 second lead over the Qirex. Side-by-side, they seemed to flow in perfect sync around the sharp angles of the American venue: only one could win however, and it was Kukkonen who led out of the final jump, winning his maiden world championship by less than two tenths of a second. On the podium, scenes were mixed. Kukkonen screamed and whooped, buoyed on by the elation of the Qirex team. Dos Santos, on the other hand, received a more touching and intimate moment as his second-place trophy was handed to him by his brother Guilherme, with a brief nod. To the billions watching, the elder brother’s nod seemed to be just a formality. To the dos Santos brothers and Piranha, however, the meaning couldn’t be clearer. You’ll get ‘em next year.

    2109 dawned with lavish fanfare from the Qirex camp, as Kukkonen married his wife, Dutch pop singer Eva van de Vosse, better known as V3 - a member of the pan-European pop supergroup V5 (pronounced five-five). The wedding festivities continued for three days at a venue in Neo-Seoul and were garishly spattered across every datasheet and gossip ‘cast you could get your grubby mitts on. The message was clear: Kukkonen had the title, the glamour, and the advantage. Out at Piranha’s subterranean facility north of Sao Paulo, dos Santos was busy training for the season ahead. Fiona O’Rourke, a lead physician with the team at the time remarked that “...it was really quite something…Luis wouldn’t say a word to any of us, but he’d be in and out of the sensory dep tank for hours a day, flying lap after lap in the simulator, even muttering track directions under his breath in the canteen! Kukkonen beat him, sure… but he did something nobody else ever could. He got under Luis’s skin.”

    With that, that F5000 circus headed to Canada for another season. Kukkonen and Wuelfrath were expected to take the fight to dos Santos, while new Piranha recruit Gustavo Coloque replaced the retired Xueyi Lin. Expectations were varied, but nobody had banked on such a disastrous start to the season for the defending world champion. The Finn looked uncharacteristically out-of-sorts as he lumbered distantly behind dos Santos and Wuelfrath, barely managing to hold off the Bolivian rookie as well as Auricom’s Stephen Broekman. By the end of the first three races, Kukkonen had just seven points: third in Canada, a measly fifth in Sagarmatha and an elimination in Valparaiso. By contrast, dos Santos was leading the championship with two wins and a second place: 27 points. Datasheets ran rampant: did Kukkonen think one title was enough? Was his married life interfering with his piloting? Had the pressure of 2108 finally gotten to him?

    Whatever it was, Kukkonen shook himself out of it, going on to win in Germany, score successive podiums in France and Ukraine, and winning again at his beloved Vostok Island. Sadly, dos Santos kept his winning momentum, winning the title by 57 points to Wuelfrath’s 48, with Kukkonen a close third with 46. Eschewing his Finnish’s rival’s extravagant partying, dos Santos opted for a more modest function, inviting fellow pilots and dignitaries for a quiet evening at his home in Sao Paulo. Kukkonen, naturally, was not invited.

    Kukkonen began 2110 as the senior pilot at Qirex, following Pieter Wuelfrath’s departure to AG Systems. Interestingly, his new teammate was none other than Pieter’s little brother Soren, whose FEISAR contract had been snapped in two by the lure of a lucrative three-year contract at the Russian squad. Kukkonen was reported to have a much friendlier attitude toward Soren, taking the younger German 'under his wing.' By contrast, tensions were simmering in the Piranha camp between dos Santos and his quick-tempered Bolivian teammate Coloque, who claimed that “Luis just clams up like a f**king monk, says nothing, and I’m supposed to believe the engineers get ‘feedback’ from that? It’s f**king team orders! His ship is better than mine and that s**t-eating silent son-of-a-b**ch knows it!”

    Glowing appraisals aside, dos Santos was mostly unruffled by his teammate’s antics. Besides thin-lipped comments that Gustavo “needed to improve this year”, the Brazilian remained impartial on the thorny issue growing at Piranha’s heart. Indeed, it showed at Talon’s Reach: dos Santos displayed another flawless win over Kukkonen, leaving Coloque to squabble with Wuelfrath and Broekman for third. The Finn, however, showed off Qirex’s new heights by leaving dos Santos and Piranha in the dust for the rest of the year. Win after win poured in for Kukkonen, and he took the 2110 title by a simply massive margin:

    1. J. KUKKONEN (FIN): 65pts.
    Qirex-RD
    2. L. M. DOS SANTOS (BRA): 41pts.
    Piranha Adv.
    3. S. WUELFRATH (AUT): 34pts.
    Qirex-RD
    4. G. COLOQUE (BOL): 25pts.
    Piranha Adv.

    Post-championship, Kukkonen called the 2110 Qirex “the best ship I’ve ever flown” and applauded both the team for a fantastic engineering job, and his teammate Soren “for an exciting rookie season!” He then retired to his apartment in Moscow, producing a selection of moody jazz ballads with his wife under the title From Jakobstad With Verve: it became a top ten chart hit in his native Finland, as well as Belgium, France, Spain and Japan, and was highly requested at both seedy ‘real-jazz’ bars and authentic nu-jazz venues around the world.

    2111 brought with it the promise of another exciting Kukkonen v. dos Santos showdown, with Piranha reporting huge gains in their craft’s speed over the off-season. However, the two had to contend with an unexpected third dynamic: Auricom’s Charlotte Worrall. The young Australian rookie stunned crowds by finishing second on debut at Talon’s Reach, and proved to be a thorn in the side of the two world champions. By the halfway point of the season, Kukkonen led the points’ standings on 25 points, with dos Santos and Worrall close behind on 23 and 21 respectively. Subsequently, the 2111 round at Gare d’Europa was a major one as the mid-season point of an intense championship hunt. But it would soon be famous for all the wrong reasons.

    Kukkonen was on pole, with dos Santos beside him and the younger Wuelfrath bringing up third. For several laps, the three battled, and it seemed just like old times. However, closing in on the final laps of the race, Kukkonen led with Wuelfrath second and dos Santos third. The Brazilian, eager to gain the lead, fired a plasma bolt at Wuelfrath just as the latter dodged. As luck would have it, the plasma bolt hit Kukkonen’s Qirex just as he used a turbo off the last of the final sector’s jumps. His retrieval pod couldn’t handle the extra speed, and he was ejected into the air away from his stricken craft. Unfortunately, Gare d’Europa’s failing construction standards had been looming above the track for some time now, and with that extra speed, Kukkonen stuck a half-collapsed support beam at a little over six hundred kilometers an hour, ricocheting off the course and into the surrounding excavation area. Upon being extricated from the pod, Kukkonen was unresponsive. While his condition was life-threatening, tireless work by surgeons at Paris’s Saint-Louis hospital managed to save the Finnish pilot’s life: tragically, he was paralysed from the waist down, and would never fly an AG craft again.

    For his part, dos Santos was noticeably shaken by Kukkonen’s injury, and dedicated his eventual 2111 title victory to him. The Brazilian would win again in 2112, before Soren Wuelfrath would beat him to the title the following year. After six more seasons nursing Piranha through a difficult transitional period into the F7200 league, Luis Mosquera dos Santos hung up his helmet at the end of the 2118 season, ending a fourteen-season long career. With three world championships and 23 league wins to his name, he is unquestionably the greatest Brazilian pilot in AG racing history. His protege, Japanese pilot Kumiko Ikeda, would win two world championships in 2122 for Piranha and 2123 for AG-Systems: furthermore, he inspired a generation of Brazilian pilots, from FEISAR’s Julio Correia to Assegai’s Aracely Diaz-Sequeira, to achieve success at the pinnacle of anti-gravity racing.

    Jarvi Kukkonen would recover from his injuries after a long rehabilitation period. His winnings as well as royalties from From Jakobstad with Verve kept him secure financially. By the time he reappeared as a special analyst for Helsinki-Sat’s coverage of the F7200 league, the Finn was back to his affable and charming self, wheeling his hoverchair around the paddock with aplomb. While he stayed frosty towards the equally standoffish dos Santos, he maintained that his rival bore no responsibility for the accident. In fact, his campaign for better track safety saw major gains in both track regulations and pilot safety during the F7200, widely regarded as one of the safest periods in AG racing history. Kukkonen split from his first wife, Eva van der Vosse, in May 2124 on amicable terms. In 2128, he met his husband Martin Carnes on a speed-dating show while visiting the UK, and the two married at Kukkonen’s home in Moscow in the summer of 2133. They remained together until Kukkonen’s death in 2154, after complications from a protracted illness.

    The rivalry between Jarvi Kukkonen and Luis Mosquera dos Santos remains an intriguing one for racing fans and historians alike; quite how two boys, from such difficult and nebulous backgrounds on opposite sides of the world, became bitter rivals in the fastest sport on earth is certainly a strange tale. There was no thawing of the relationship over common ground, no mellowing with age. Both pilots seemed determined to regard the other as a rival long after the years had passed - perhaps that’s the mark real racing leaves on our hearts, minds and souls.
    Last edited by NeroIcaras; 10th February 2023 at 01:55 AM.

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