Ultimatum Garage [IN HIATUS]

Ricardo Lionheart I've upgraded my RX-7


   Motegi, Japan
     The team was in their tent, inspecting the RX-7, dubbed "Caroline", for any faults. They were at the Idle Master Open, and the race had just finished. The teams were pulling their cars into their tents, and the podium finishers were still celebrating. The team had their RX-7 pulled apart as the engineers inspected. Their race was a rocky one, but it was only a test. The black and white RX-7 only made it halfway through the race until the gearbox gave in, leading to the team pulling out of the race. With disappointed faces, they pushed the car behind the pitwall, and straight into the tent. Upon inspection, they had found the computer had malfunctioned, and was badly damaged.
    "Take a look at this" the engineer said. Leonard walked over and looked at the dirty ECU. "Gravel got inside, and scratched it to hell." With a big sigh, Leonard walked away. Steven, who was driving, walked up to the engineer, noticeably annoyed.
    "So what was it?!" He yelled, making the engineer jump. "There's lots of gravel in the ECU," he said, "I think it got it from the wipeout during the practice." Steven only got more angry, and he snatched the ECU from the engineer and looked at. There was a small opening, and it had gravel dust all over. He raised the ECU in the air, paused, then put it down and shoved back to the engineer.
    "This is all your fault, you know! If this closed tighter we would've made top five!" Steven yelled. The engineer signed and shook his head, and walked back to the car. The transmission itself was still intact, so everyone in the tent signed with relief.
    It was time to leave, as the track was about to close in two hours. The car had been put back together, and the rental truck had arrived. the team packed their things, loaded up the car, and headed for the airport. Caroline was loaded onto a plane, and headed for England. The sister RX-7, Mary-Ann, was being tested at Croft Circuit by the team's best driver, Justin Hornback. He had finished his 2015 season of the GT4 Championship, snatching up one victory during the season. The car has been running just fine, and has been racking up lots of miles, which has proven very essential to understanding the car.
 
Croft Circuit, England.
    Justin had just finished driving the RX-7 to the limit for 15 laps, and pulled into the pits. The car took the beating as if it were a walk in the park. The crew practiced a routine pitstop, and then helped Justin out of the car. The crew began to inspect the car for any damage, and Justin went to the wall next to the racetrack, and watched the cars drive by. He saw a Z4 GT3 ext the last turn, and he waved at it. The driver waved back, and the thunderous sound of the V8 got louder as it came by. Justin looked back at the RX-7. You sound like a vacuum cleaner he thought.
    "Hey Justin! Leonard's on the phone! He wants to talk to you!" one of the crew yelled, and Justin jogged to him and grabbed the phone.
    "Hey Leonard!" He said.
    "Hey we just got on the plane, we're headed to London. How's the car?" Leonard replied.
    "She's doing good, no problems here. How'd the race go?"
    "Not good, the car's ECU got gravel inside and froze the trans in 4th."
    "Well ours hasn't done that yet, we've been driving it hard all week, too."
    "That's good, it wasn't fastened tightly after we cleaned the car from a wipeout during practice. Gravel was everywhere!" Leonard laughed after he said that, and they continued to chat for a while. The phone was passed to Steven where they had a nice chat for an hour, then hung up. The team was going to come to Croft Circuit, and Justin agreed to help Steven get up to speed. Leonard also informed him of a sponsorship deal with Renishaw, and their cars will be painted orange and white. This was good news for the team, it showed progress. With the Aeterham Sportscar Series start looming in the coming weeks, the team has enough time to prepare, but not enough mess around.

Hotel Kanne, Hockenhiem, Germany
    After a week of intense practice, the team was set to race in the afternoon. In the hotel, Justin was getting prepared for the upcoming race, while Steven was still sleep in bed. Given it was only five in the morning, Justin didn't bother to wake him up, and instead headed outside. He got into his rental Fiat 500, and drove to the circuit. The sun hadn't risen yet, and there were no cars on the road, aside from the occasional bus or taxi. The town was quiet, and you wouldn't suspect that one of the world's most famous racetracks resided there.

Hockenhiem Circuit, Germany
   He noticed the Pezzarinho team working on their car in a tent, getting prepared seemingly throughout the night. He then looked at his team's tent, and there laid the two RX-7's, with nobody at the tent. Of course... he thought. He waled over to the entrance, got inside, and walked over to his tent. He looked at the tools, and they seemed to be untouched since qualifying. The cars weren't even inspected! He looked around the cars for any damage, cleaned off the dirt of the splitter and canards, and checked the engines. He signed in relief after finding no major issues, but worried if there was more to it than what he had checked. He again looked the Pezzarinho team's tent, and the engineers were inspecting the engine, pulling off parts and putting them back on. It was rocket science compared to Justin's work.
   It was now seven o'clock, and the first engineer arrived at the tent. He looked at Justin, who was giving him a angry stare.
   "The car seemed fine when we checked it..." the engineer slowly said. Justin pointed at the other tents, when the crews were already stripping the cars, preparingthem for the race.
   "Yeah but that's because they went into dirt. We stayed on the track!" the engineer said in defense, and continued to watch as the RPS Race Ventures RX-7's hood was being put back into place. Justin sighed and checked his phone for any texts, and there was none. He texted his teammate Steven to see if he was up, and got no answer for half an hour. He called twice, and got no answer. Steven was still asleep, and the team had to be assembled by noon.
   Two hours passed, and Justin received a text from Steven, "On my way". A simple response to a worrying situation. It was 9:34am, and it still only Justin and one engineer eating a sandwich. Justin went out of the tent and began walking to the parking lot to see if anyone had pulled up. From a distance, he noticed a Range Rover, it was Leonard's. With him, in the passenger seat, was Steven. He was still asleep in the car. It was as if he didn't know it was raceday. Steven woke up with a jump, and stumbled out of the car.
   "Well it's about time! I've been sitting here since five!" Justin yelled, walking up the car. 
   "You missed breakfast, Belgian waffles and bacon. It was pretty good, I was wondering where you were." Leonard said calmly. Justin sighed, and told him about the other teams getting prepared. Leonard laughed, and patted Justin's head. "You worry too much." Leonard chuckled. As they walked into the tent, the rest of the crew arrived, and began observing the engine. "All clear!" one of them yelled. 
   "What'd I miss?" Steven asked, "Nothing, apparently." Justin replied.
 
   It was one o'clock in the afternoon, and the race started. The cars ran fine, but lost positions in sector three, as understeer was more predominant. Justin & Steven both finished, with Justin in 12th, and Steven trailing behind in 28th. The cars pulled into the pits, and were pushed back into the tent. The teams did what Leonard told them to do: finish. They weren't going for the win, as that glory would come later. They were testing the waters, seeing who to look out for. The two cars, Caroline and Mary-Ann, both finished with no damage, and all going to plan. Steven did not like this strategy, since his car lagged behind.
   "I tried to push it, but the faster I drove, the worse it got!" Steven told Justin. "It was the same for me," he replied, "You just have to be gentle with it. The setup was the setback." Leonard, on the other hand, was in a very good mood, seeing that both cars survived the first round. "Dinner's on me!" he yelled, follow by celebration within the crew. Everyone celebrated but Steven, who didn't see what the celebration was all about, nobody won.
   As the team packed up, the cars were driven into the trailer, and they would be seen again at Monza, in Italy, for round two of the season. The team was enjoying a celebratory dinner for surviving the first round, and the next day they set out for Monza. 

Rewards after Aeternam Round 3:
Steven, 23rd: +100,000 CR
Justin, DNF: +100,000 CR
Total: +200,000 CR

Rewards for AESS:

Team - 10th - 1,475,000
Justin - 17th - 650,000
Steve - 24th - 575,000
______________________
Total: 2,700,000 CR