Roar Of The V8s

A new day at Sydney came with another shower, as AKV Motorsports and the rest of the paddock awoke to find the sky opening up yet again after last night's rain had proceeded over the track. By the time scheduled events were due to start, the rain was so heavy race control delayed proceedings for an entire hour due in part to flooding.

It was nice, it allowed the teams an extra moment to rest but Viral could do anything but. With the weather in her favor, she wanted to get on with it before it went away. As the day proceeded, the rain stayed, and after a very long two hours that saw a multitude of support series see the track it was finally almost time for qualifying.

Viral’s excitement was tipping the scales, and it helped the mood in the garage despite the downpour. The wet tires were on, the cars were ready to be rolled out onto pit lane, and the final day of the Sydney SuperNight was almost ready to kick off. Akula was in high spirits from his top five finish the previous night, and so was equally as eager to continue for the final day.

Finally, after hours of delays and other series, pit exit was opened and qualifying began. Viral led Akula out this time, the more effective rain driver leading the pair. The track wasn’t so much wet as it was damp, but after so many hours of rain no team was taking chances trying a dry tire yet. Everyone was taking their time around the circuit on their outlaps, but spread out quite nicely as they got going.

Mostert got them started off, and was the only car to do a 1:39 until Viral finished up her lap and slotted into P2. Already she felt comfortable with the elements, she understood the limits of the track, and was getting up to pace nicely. But Mostert was not done, in fact he pressed on and shaved a further three tenths off his lap. Viral took this as a challenge, and raised him by closing to within two tenths of him. A battle of time between the #24 and #25 commenced.

Akula meanwhile was taking his wet qualifying quite leisurely, sitting 15th after his first two laps. He was saving his best for the very end of the run, hoping to sneak his way into the top ten along with Viral. However, across pit lane the teams were preparing to make a calculated risk. Everyone was setting up the dry tires for their final runs. Viral and Akula joined the pits to do the same, no sense in risking it when everyone else was doing it. If it worked out, they would be bounced out immediately.

Those who were doing so were validated when Bryce Fullwood, the first car out on dry tires, did a purple second sector. With that, everyone began to file out of pit lane to see what they could do with a final couple of laps. As everyone began to heat up their new dry tires, Fullwood took the chance to put together an impressive lap. Even before that Feeney set a new fastest lap.

With that, both Viral and Akula got on with it. Viral felt quite comfortable even with the dry tires on. She put together a nice lap to go right behind Fullwood, but she knew she could go faster. Akula also did a solid lap and jumped into P8 for the time being, yet as more and more drivers got onto the dry tires, more and more faster laps were being done. Mostert once again played a hand with the first 1:37 and Viral matched his punch with her own 1:37, only for Broc Feeney to jump both of them.

Now with some confidence in the car, Akula got on with a strong lap. The times kept dropping as the track kept drying. Mark Winterbottom was the first to go into the 1:36 range. This was going to be Akula’s final lap, putting together three personal best sectors, and jumped up all the way to 7th spot. Meanwhile Shane got busted for track limits on his final lap, and by proxy was going to be out of the top ten. Feeney however was not nearly as unlucky as he jumped up to the top just after Akula finished his lap.

Waters bumped Akula down to 8th spot, just before Viral slotted herself into a healthy 2nd behind Feeney. Courtney then bumped Akula down to 9th. Heimgartner then came up to put him down into 10th, and unfortunately he was knocked out of the ten by Will Davison, before De Pasquale put in a new fastest time and dropped Akula to 12th. While he would end up settling in 16th between Scott Pye and David Reynolds, it was unfortunate to miss out.

Where one side of the garage just missed out, the other made it in soundly. Viral finished the session in P5, so for the second day in a row AKV Motorsports would put a car in the top ten shootout.

The rain had come again since the end of qualifying, so once again the lap times were in the high 39’s. This gave Viral just that little bit of extra confidence in herself to put together a competitive lap. She had the whole team behind her, and as she waited for Waters to leave pit lane and start his lap she had no nerves at all. The first race had passed her, so the butterflies were no longer present. As Waters got on with his lap, she was released from pit lane. Waters did a good lap, 1:39:842 was the new benchmark with only Viral, Feeney, Brodie Kostecki, De Pasquale, and Mostert left to run.

Viral got on with her lap, and immediately fell into rhythm from the get go at turn one. After having gone through the track nearly 100 times in three days she was more than aware of the optimal way around Sydney Motorsport Park. So aware in fact that she blasted the best sector that Frosty had set, she was already well on course to put it on pole, and she wasn’t stopping. She smashed Cam Waters’ 2nd sector time, and her cumulative began to show an insane picture. Four tenths up on Waters, and now everyone was paying attention.

She didn’t lift for turn nine, and her lines through ten and eleven were the best she had done in the wet all weekend. She crossed the line, and got the word. 1:39:417

“Currently P1, that was incredible. Love to see that.”

Viral knew she was fast in the wet, but even she couldn’t hold herself together that well. Even so, she was caught by surprise when the commentators got on her radio chatter.

“Viral, Neil here. That was a stonking lap mate. We expected to see you strong in the rain today but that lap was incredible.”

“Thanks Neil, you know you run enough laps around a track you start to understand it inside and out. The car is great, hooked up nicely, everything did what I needed it to do. The team worked hard to get these cars ready over the winter. As you said I do love a little bit of rain in my driving.”

“Very good, it’s great to have you here in Supercars.”

“Pleasure’s all mine Neil.”

Viral was met in the pit lane with several pats on the back from the team, but everyone’s focus was on the runners to come. First was Broc Feeney who looked strong from the first sector but nearly dumped it at the top of the hill in turn four and his lap only notched him P3. First bullet dodged. Next was Brodie Kostecki, and he nearly matched Viral’s first sector time as he went by. From that point on the team was holding their breath. There was a little bit of relief when he skated wide at eight and lost a bit of time. When he got to the line though everyone jumped up a little bit as he one-upped her third sector time and just barely missed out by little more than a tenth.

Bullet two missed, but only barely. Anton De Pasquale was next, but the rain was beginning to come down harder. Even the weather was beginning to shift in her favor. Even then, the team once again held their breaths as Anton’s first sector was nearly equal to Viral’s. Yet as he went to turn in for seven he over drove the corner massively, keeping it on track but losing a lot of time. His cumulative fell behind Brodie and he finished his lap in P3. Bullet three dodged, but now was the true threat.

Mostert had been the one driver matching Viral’s wet pace in qualifying, and now he was the only one left who could dethrone her. The entire team was watching on, and the camera crews were now focused on them and Walkinshaw Andretti United. Two days ago, they were lucky to get camera shots on passes down the field. Now, the focus was all on them, with Viral sitting in the center of the shot as Mostert began his lap.

However the track began to deteriorate from the weather even more, it seemed as though going out early may have saved Viral as Mostert’s first sector was short of hers by over eight tenths. It was over a second by the time he got through sector two, and at that moment it began to sink into everyone, but Viral was still processing it herself. Mostert could only manage 8th in the conditions presented, and when he crossed the line Viral folded her head into her hooves in disbelief. Pole, in only her second career Supercars start. It was the first big moment for the team, and it got everyone talking. AKV Motorsports was not coming to just fill slots on the grid, they were here to compete at the front.

“Yes boys, YES!” Viral simply could not contain herself. So she embraced every member of the team she could find.

Eventually she was pulled aside by Garth Tander, a retired Supercars Champion, and presented with the ArmorAll Pole sign to present the $1,000 bonus, and conduct an interview.

“Viral Velocity, first career pole position in just your second start. You’ve done it despite these shocking weather conditions. The way you handled that car around this wet track, it was like you’ve been doing it your whole life.”

“Wish I could say I have been doing it my whole life, but I couldn’t have been out here if it wasn’t for this team. Akula, my Engineer Neon Shock, everyone put their heart and soul into this team over the winter doing everything they could to get these cars ready for this race, this season, and to come out here and put this car on pole right away, it just feels special.”

“Indeed, in fact you and this team have really come out of nowhere to start this season. Obviously Akula and yourself have a lot of driving experience but, well you spent most of your career in America. How was it adjusting to sitting on the opposite side of the car?”

“Funny you should ask that. Honest answer it was really weird when I first got into the car during testing, but in the end the instincts of being a driver overtook the instincts of ‘hey why am I sitting on the right and not the left’. No it hasn’t hindered me in any way as you could probably see.”

“Your team did have really good pace right at the very end of the race yesterday with your strategy, how do you plan on attacking it with the weather coming tonight?”

“The weathers been off and on all weekend, so it helps to have a car that can hold itself together in both the dry and wet. We showed pace yesterday in the dry, and we showed it today in the wet, I think that’s a good sign. Can’t forget to give a shoutout to Axalta, they’ve been with me for seven years now, we’ve hung it out through a lot of tough times, and it feels right to have them on board for my first Supercars pole.”

“Well you’ve ticked that box, now go out and win it. Good luck this afternoon.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Call me Tander, please my dad might be watching.”

Tander, Viral, and the commentators and camera crew watching all busted their guts laughing at the banter as Viral made her way back to the team.