"Rain..." Viral noted with a devious smirk across her face. She had stepped out for a moment to check out the weather, having heard reports of storms across the east coast. If there was one thing that always got her hopes up, it was the wet stuff. The great equalizer. Car performance? Throw it out the window. When the rain falls, it's all about the driver. And Viral always saw herself as a rain master. A Equestrian/American rainmeister if you will.

She found her way back to the garage where the team was preparing the cars while the Aussie Racing Cars were qualifying. "How's it looking? Wets?" A voice asked her as Viral looked over her Commodore. It was Vectora, the lead mechanical engineer for Viral's #24.

"Definitely, not a storm so much but it's not gonna clear up before we head out." Viral replied to her.

The blue changeling simply nodded and continued to work, she was an excited young drone but at the same time was a very dedicated worker.

Viral felt a pat on her left shoulder, turning around to see Neon with her usual sarcastic grin. "Enjoy your nature walk?" She joked.

"Ah well the weather didn't dampen my spirits." Viral joked back. Neon couldn't help but snort at that pun.

"I hate you, that was absolutely horrible."

"Yes, it was." Was all Viral could respond with, as the pair shared a chuckle and Viral moved along to get ready.

Viral had to quickly get into her racing gear, haven taken it off to check out the weather. By the time she got back, Akula was already good to go and both of the cars were ready to be rolled out to pit lane. Race Control was just finishing up corralling the Aussie Racing Cars before they gave they all clear.

"Cutting it a little close there V, you get lost in the showers?" Akula remarked knowing very well that Viral would have been looking forward to a wet session.

"You could say that. Maybe I was just excited to get out there and couldn't keep myself cramped up in a box all day."

The #24 Axalta and #98 Qantas ZB Commodores had been through several days of testing. Yet, this would be the first time the AKV Motorsports Holden's would see testing in the wet. It was going to be a learning experience, but it was one they were both looking forward to as they got strapped in and their mechanics rolled their cars out onto the lane.

To their right was Tim Slade and the Cooldrive entry, the only car on the grid all on its lonesome as a single entry team. To their left were all the other teams that had a year of Constructors Championship points to set their slot on the pit lane. The newly named Premi-Air Racing were their neighbors in the pit lane, with the #22 and #76 Commodores of Chris Pither and Garry Jacobson respectively.

They had to sit in silence for a while, but it wasn't long before Race Control gave the word to open pit exit beginning the first practice session of the season.

Neon waited until most of the cars ahead of them had exited the pits before she and Viral's car control engineer gave the signal to leave. She was followed by Garry Jacobson's Subway #78 and Akula tucked in behind them.

They were taking it easy as they exited pit lane onto turn two. No one knew how the track conditions were, so most teams including AKV Motorsports were playing it safe with the wet tires on their cars.

As much as Viral would have wanted to start pushing immediately, in these conditions she knew it was about control and flow. Finding the right lines and being easy with the throttle and brakes. The conditions could improve or worsen at any time.

But as it stood, the track felt like it still had something to give in germs of grip. Viral still eased the car around for her outlap, but she wanted to at least see how far she could take before she needed to give back.

She lifted a bit early for turn one, not exactly pushing the car towards the outside curb but going just fast enough to roll the car through the apex. Turn 2 was a similar story. Earlier braking, and not pushing the car as hard as she would normally. The car responded very nicely as she eased her way through turns 3 through 6, coming down the hill for turn 7 she felt just a little front end slip so she tapped the brakes ever so slightly to get it to turn sharper.

Turn 8 was a very slow corner, and she had a tiny oversteer moment on the exit as she went over the hill. Turns 9 and 10 were going to be a problem later, so she took it slow and hugged the inside as far as she could without touching the curb. Smooth on the power coming out so she didn't have a repeat of turn 8 and she crossed the line for her first timed lap.

"First lap slots us into P7. That's a good start. I imagine pace will pick up as everyone gets settled in."

Akula finished his first lap not long after, slotting into a respectable P12. It didn't take long for the team as a whole to notice that the track was at a really strange crossover point. The track was seemingly dry in most areas, but there were also noticeable wet spots. Turn 11 especially had a river of water draining across the entire length of the track.

Not too far ahead of them, Shane van Gisburgen and Triple Eight had taken a gamble to see if the track could handle dry tires. He got around nicely until he made his way to turn 11. He entered the corner wide, and when he passed over the first river the front tires slipped. He understeered into the grass, which then caught his right side tires and spun him with no chance of holding onto it.

Viral and Akula were in turn 4 at the time, when they were made aware of Shane's spin. Viral was surprised that anyone had opted to go for slick tires… while Akula was just surprised to hear that Shane had spun at all, let alone this early into the season. Or as to why Triple Eight thought that dry tyres was a good idea to gamble on so early.

Akula made an easy move inside Garry Jacobson's #76 just as they went through turn 8. It gave him some clean air with Viral having picked up the pace a little bit.

"Just an update, Shane was running slicks when he spun." Chrysalis informed him.

"That makes more sense, does anyone else have slicks?"

"James Courtney, but I imagine he'll be changing his mind soon. We'll stay on the wets for now."

With room to pick up the pace a bit, Akula managed to bank a lap that was good for P8. He may have been confident with his car in the dry, but wasn't yet ready to push it in the current conditions. Viral meanwhile was mixing laps with the front runners early. She posted a time good enough for 3rd behind David Reynolds and Chaz Mostert.

She was about to push for a third lap when the #4 BJR Commodore of Jack Smith went wide in turn one ahead of her, and she backed off to let him rejoin the track. At that point she decided to back off a bit and eventually came back into the box.

Akula, meanwhile, wanted to get some more time on track to focus on a setup for a wet track. After a few more laps, he could only marginally improve before deciding to join Viral in pit lane. As he made his way in, The #11 Shell Mustang of Will Davison put up a new Fastest time.

In the garage there was some talk about the weather, while the track itself was not yet ready for slicks as evidenced by the spin from Shane, everyone was aware that it was no longer raining. After some deliberation, both of the AKV Motorsports cars swapped from wet tires to slicks, and waited for someone else to make a move.

The moment they waited for came with 13 minutes left in the session, as Shane posted the first 1:38 of the weekend on a set of slick tires. Immediately, Viral was on her way out and it didn't take long for Akula and others to follow. Before they even exited the pit lane, Will Davison further improved on Shane's time.

With ten minutes left in the session, everyone had minimal time to get some flying laps in the dry. Shane took the fastest time away from Davison, then Todd Hazelwood put together a fast lap of his own.

Viral managed to string together a lap that brought her back to 5th, but it didn't last long as the lap times kept tumbling. With under 5 minutes to go it was a race to see who could throw together a lap.

Just ahead of Akula, Nick Percat slid out of turn 11 which made him back out of his lap as Cameron Waters checked up just in front of him. The changeling cursed to himself as he got back into rhythm. He'd have time to put together one more lap to get an idea of where he sat.

Viral for her effort was finding pace of her own, putting together three green sectors to go 7th Fastest. Both of them had time enough to do one more lap.

Mostert went fastest, then Winterbottom one upped him. With less than a minute left the laps were tumbling down and it was do or die for both Viral and Akula. Viral completed her final lap just after the checkered flag and jumped up into 6th, but was quickly checked out to 10th as other cars improved.

Akula was in turn 8 when Viral completed her lap, having once again put up two personal best sectors. He took it easy through turn 11 which was still patchy wet, but eventually finished a lap that was good enough to slot into 6th place at the flag. After all had settled down, Viral had dropped to 14th.

For just the first practice session of the season, it was a ripper. Viral had been among the fastest when the track was wet, but still had some learning to do. Once the track dried, the more experienced drivers adjusted much better. Akula conversely was middle of the pack when the rain was falling, but unlike Viral had quickly found his form once a dry line had formed.

After a quick moment to do practice starts with the rest of the field, the team met in the garage to discuss the data and prepare for practice two, which would be later that day.

Author's Note

Special thanks to RDgamer321 for help in writing the racing chapters of this story!