Roar Of The V8s

Viral was leaning against the rear window of her Commodore with her rear legs crossed, bopping her head up and down to the rhythm of a good song. It was to pass time, first practice for the Tasmania SuperSprint would be starting shortly. First session of the day, in fact, as most of the support series had done their practice and qualifying earlier in the week. With them out of the way, it was time for the V8s to get on with it.

Viral had at least put all her gear together while she waited, and Akula soon joined them with a few minutes left to spare before they needed to get in the cars. The crimson pegasus plucked her earbuds out with her two wings and tossed them over to Neon, who promptly caught them and put them in a safe place for Viral to return to after the session.

“Clear skies throughout the entire weekend this time V, Symmons Plains is a short track so we’re gonna need to minimize mistakes.” Akula brought them onto the same page.

“I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit nervous this time. I had the weather kinda skewing things in my favor back in Sydney.”

“You’ll do fine, you just need some time to get your bearings. That’s what practice is for ain’t it?”

Viral nodded slowly as Akula got into his car. In Sydney the weather and track layout had put them on even playing fields, but Symmons Plains was an entirely new environment for Viral. Akula meanwhile was very familiar with the short circuit, and it was one of his favorites on the calendar. Viral was expecting him to make her look like an amateur this weekend, at least for the first couple of sessions. Ideally she wanted to be somewhere around his pace by the time they got to the final race on Sunday, but she was willing to accept that this first practice session was going to make them look like they were driving completely different cars.

She took a deep breath as she closed the door to her car, strapping in and allowing the mechanics to push her onto pit lane with the others. Akula was not far behind, and a couple minutes later pit exit was opened. As per routine, Viral would follow Akula out for practice hoping to get an idea of the lines and braking zones of the track by studying the local.

As they rolled their way into turn four, a heavily banked hairpin at the end of a long straight, Viral tensed up slightly. This was the corner she was most worried about, heavy braking zones being one of her weakest areas, in stark contrast to Akula who made a living on being the last of the late breakers. But once she understood how to take it, she could find her way around this track fairly smoothly otherwise.

They got on with their first flying laps, and Akula was already pulling a gap from Viral at a fairly steady rate, quite confident with the car while the pegasus was tentative on both the throttle and brakes as she got her bearings. The first flying laps were spread a bit all over the place, but a second lap for the field made it clear who was fast.

No surprises as the Triple Eight Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing, and Tickford Racing cars all topped the timing sheets, but Akula snuck his way in between Shane and Will Davison for a comfy third early on. Viral however was languishing early in 17th, but slowly improving as more laps ticked on by.

A few minutes passed by, Akula continued to battle for the top of the timing table while Viral slowly mustered up the confidence to push. She had found a nice rhythm to attack turns one and two, but when she got to turn four on this lap she had a massive left front lock, stopping her car just a few meters short of the gravel trap. She spun her car around, kicking a bit of the gravel out with her rear tires, and waited for traffic to clear before she got on her way and returned to the pits, slightly more red than usual under her helmet.

Had the HANS device not been keeping her head locked in place, she may have slammed it into her steering wheel in frustration. Viral did not take mistakes well, always pushing herself to be as close to perfect as possible. Maximizing everything she could out of whatever she was driving.

She was showing on the leaderboards in 12th, while her teammate was trading fastest laps with the best of the grid. She didn't ask for many changes to the car, a few minor things to help the front end turn more, but she just rested her head back and took a moment to relax.

After a volley of laps, Akula finally made his way back in. The team got to work on his car for a moment as he got out to cool off. Viral kept to herself just trying to collect her bearings, thinking it was best to let the lead driver do his thing.

She had plenty of time to figure out all of Symmons Plains' secrets over the weekend, but in this session she only had a few minutes to see if the changes the team made were trending in the right direction.

She had about eight minutes left to try it, and instead of trying to push and be competitive she decided to fall into a slow and smooth pace. The car was a lot sharper in the front, just how she wanted it. So she got on with it, slotting in behind the two Shell Mustangs.

This time she did an earlier trail brake into turn four, braking gradually into the corner rather than all at once. It was how she used to drive Open-Wheels, it helped with tire wear and consistency as the cars they were driving had much thinner tires than a GT car.

Akula came out late to continue attacking the times, veteran Mark Winterbottom posted a superb lap that was usurped by the Monster Energy Mustang of Cam Waters.

The two AKV Motorsports cars had a few more minutes to get used to their new setups. Viral jumped up to P10 momentarily having set all personal bests with three minutes left.

Akula got his final run started shortly thereafter, having slotted behind Broc Feeney, their fellow rookie. As he was getting started Viral finally got a good turn four and was able to finally break into the 50 second margin. She had time for one more run, Akula meanwhile would be cutting it close but was quickest in the first sector on the lap he had going.

Shane and Will Davison traded new fastest laps, with Will breaking the series track record to the tune of a 50:345, but Akula was looking to continue the team's competitive pace. Two further personal bests as Feeney got out of the way on his final lap to jump up to 4th. Viral crossed the line shortly after, but was also slowing down after her final run. She finished in P15, but she was still satisfied with the improvement. After all she had another practice session later to fully dial in for the weekend.