Post by maikoheart on Jan 11, 2022 2:20:55 GMT -5
Neptunia Corse
Founded in 1996 by former racing driver Cornelia Biaggi, Neptunia Corse had its humble beginnings in regional sports car series all across the Italian peninsula. Fielding exclusively Ferraris out of her sheer passion, Cornelia became one of the most beloved figures in the paddock with her never say die attitude leading to wonderfully inspiring showcases of endurance spirit. With the outfit garnering such attention it wasn’t long until Ferrari executives took notice and made Neptunia Corse the leading works team for the world famous racing marque.
Further Backstory:
The great ‘Exodus’ was a perfect time for the new team to show its prowess, becoming a brand new superpower amongst the ruins of the past era. Working closely with Ferrari and its partners the team had consistent success with the 360 GTC; a stout and reliable front runner in the EURO NGT category. Their greatest achievements wouldn’t come until later however, when Ferrari had approached Biaggi and company with a top secret assignment.
With the “bootleg” creation of the 550 GTS, the Maranello factory had to rush to find a solution. The 575 GTC was a valiant effort but it still couldn’t match up to the British-Italian result. What came up was a devious plan only made possible by the most dastardly minds – a special homologated model based off of the spectacular World Grand Prix inspired Enzo supercar. When spy shots of the test mule were leaked across the web many feared another Exodus would already occur and painted Ferrari already as an enemy to the world of sports car racing.
When completed, the car turned out to be Maserati’s brand new MC12, a ‘grand touring’ machine that celebrated the brand’s sports car racing heritage. Or, that was what Maserati made it out to be. Underneath the surface the machine was almost like a retaliation towards those wreaking havoc and blemishing the image of the ever prestigious supercar brand. It was an oddly rebellious angle for the Italians to exhibit, with many questioning how the car was even legal in the first place. Ultimately EURO deemed it legal to race with many team principals protesting against the organization in a last ditch effort to have it excluded for the first round in Imola.
Their pleas failed however, with the Neptunia Corse team absolutely dominating the 2004 GT Superleague and not leaving even a single stone unturned. Even with the success ballast weighing the MC12s down, their outright paranormal demeanor couldn’t be shackled as many drivers could only hope to race for 3rd place. By the penultimate round, the organizers had seen enough from the troublemakers from Maranello and decided to grow a spine: revise the car or don’t run it at all next season. Funnily enough, EURO decided to let Neptunia Corse and Maserati take the title honors for that year, though very begrudgingly.
The 2005 season would commence without those two fear-inducing chassis, with Maserati complying with the organizer’s ultimatum and revising the car. Neptunia Corse wouldn’t find the same domination that they produced the last season but it wasn’t a bad season by any means. With a few podiums and a couple of wins the future looked bright for Biaggi and her loyal employees.
Things would quickly take a turn for the worse as relative newcomers Empress Autosport saw the sheer potential of the MC12 and decided to completely buy out the factory team rights from Neptunia Corse. At first the deal was a no-brainer; it was a sure fire way of sealing the company’s future while allowing them to become experimental with their efforts. It looked positive at first with the team’s first outing in the 2006 edition of Japan’s premier GT racing series netting a 2nd place overall in the drivers standings, but the factory would outright deny the team new examples of the MC12 after being accused of stealing one of the 2004 chassis. However, it was a classic frame job to benefit Empress Autosport, with the team being told at first they were allowed to take the car for themselves and only being told they were not allowed to race it after the final round of the season.
This would lead Biaggi to try and find a new car for 2007, and it seemed like the Bunnychan Rennsport Murcielago would be a fine alternative. It couldn’t have gone any worse, with Neptunia suffering their worst result since their inception. The car was an absolute pig, and it liked to roast like one as well. Engineers quit after being frustrated with the support they had received from their new suppliers, leading to Neptunia Corse downsizing greatly. 2008 went a little better, but it was clear that the cash reserves were running dry.
Neptunia Corse and Biaggi would travel all the corners of the globe to find their place in the motorsport landscape. It wouldn’t bear any fruit however, with the team settling back into the GT Superleague GTE AM class with their champion provisional. They’d immediately be relegated to the EuroSeries after a disastrous season with either no pace or no luck. Neptunia Corse would diminish into a small time outfit meandering in the midpack of the EuroSeries field, far from their peak in the mid 00s. It wasn’t until their star driver Hibiki Miura returned for the 2017 season that they could finally claw their way back to the top of the leader boards and gain automatic promotion the next year with a teams championship title.
2019 was a stand out year for the now retro-classic rag tag team from Italy, with consistent podiums piling up left and right and finally resulting in enough cash to finally return to the top class in the Superleague. Just like old times, they found themselves in a Ferrari and took a last turn pass for the win in the final round to take the title for the second time in 2020. With the team finally in good health again, they set their sights on a revenge mission and packed their bags once again towards the Far East, bringing their title winning Ferrari 488 JSA-GT to the J-Speed GT Masters in an effort to topple the rebellious Maserati gang, this time from the outside looking in.
Drivers
Marisa di Vallelunga
Rank/Archetype: Elite Blocker
Tripwire: @lunar_prophet_marisa
Gender: Female (she/her)
Age: 18
Birthdate: ?
Height: 5’ ft 9” in (175 cm)
Birthplace: Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Interests: Poetry, fortune telling
Personal Achievements: Japan Junior Grand Prix Series overall podium, Japan Super Grand Prix overall podium
Seemingly out of the blue, Marisa di Vallelunga appeared on the Japanese junior karting circuit at an early age and began to rip up tracks all across the island. In a stroke of luck for the orphan, her adoptive family was a karting obsessed household, with her mother a seasoned veteran of the discipline. Her ability to hold off a hungry pack of wannabes didn’t go unnoticed as many junior open wheeler development programs started knocking on the door, and Marisa found her way into a Rookie Grand Prix grid spot at a very early age.
She vowed to stand up for others who couldn’t fend for themselves, defending less privileged drivers from the haughty and cocky trust fund kids who would find themselves in better equipment. One such incident was a particular driver who messed with a fellow colleague of hers by brake checking them constantly and parking their car into the middle of the corner. Marisa decided to sacrifice her 2nd race by subtly bumping with the culprit in the first corner, sending them both off safely into the gravel trap and retiring the pair. Marisa was dealt a one race ban and missed out on title honors, but she has yet to regret her decision as the bully victim went onto win the race and achieve a scholarship.
As for herself, despite the incident many Super Grand Prix teams were fighting for a chance to have their hands on the Italian wonderkid. With a contract signed at 16, she wound up surprising the media on her first season, finishing a respectable mid pack in the points before having a break-out season in her sophomore year, only finishing behind Minami Tsukishima and Kasumi Yamasaki. Despite being able to latch onto 3rd place in a nearly assured fashion, the two ahead were on a level of their own with one of the closest JSGP battles occurring in the series’ history.
It was enough to be noticed immediately by a GTE PRO team, and with a signature on the dotted line, Marisa found herself in the spotlight touted as one of the next generation drivers. During her journey, she found solace in poetry about girls’ love romance (under a pseudonym), garnering many blog followers right up to her GT Masters debut. She was also classified as an outright chuunibyou in school, becoming the campus’ local fortune teller and giving false negative readings for the multitude of gullible boys willing to seek into their future. However, it’s now up to her to shape her own.
RP notes -
- She’s a rather rebellious figure, and will not hesitate to start beef with anyone in the paddock who dares to tick her off. How angry she gets depends on how pretty the other person is.
- Despite this she’s a really big softy, especially around those she finds aren’t able to fend for themselves properly.
- Bringing up her poetry or chuunibyou antics in front of her either results in embarrassment, anger, or both along with an extra black eye included for free!
- Her and Minami Tsukishima attended the same school and are good friends. They were known among their group of friends for always fighting about silly things, but it was obviously a veil for their 'tension'.
She vowed to stand up for others who couldn’t fend for themselves, defending less privileged drivers from the haughty and cocky trust fund kids who would find themselves in better equipment. One such incident was a particular driver who messed with a fellow colleague of hers by brake checking them constantly and parking their car into the middle of the corner. Marisa decided to sacrifice her 2nd race by subtly bumping with the culprit in the first corner, sending them both off safely into the gravel trap and retiring the pair. Marisa was dealt a one race ban and missed out on title honors, but she has yet to regret her decision as the bully victim went onto win the race and achieve a scholarship.
As for herself, despite the incident many Super Grand Prix teams were fighting for a chance to have their hands on the Italian wonderkid. With a contract signed at 16, she wound up surprising the media on her first season, finishing a respectable mid pack in the points before having a break-out season in her sophomore year, only finishing behind Minami Tsukishima and Kasumi Yamasaki. Despite being able to latch onto 3rd place in a nearly assured fashion, the two ahead were on a level of their own with one of the closest JSGP battles occurring in the series’ history.
It was enough to be noticed immediately by a GTE PRO team, and with a signature on the dotted line, Marisa found herself in the spotlight touted as one of the next generation drivers. During her journey, she found solace in poetry about girls’ love romance (under a pseudonym), garnering many blog followers right up to her GT Masters debut. She was also classified as an outright chuunibyou in school, becoming the campus’ local fortune teller and giving false negative readings for the multitude of gullible boys willing to seek into their future. However, it’s now up to her to shape her own.
RP notes -
- She’s a rather rebellious figure, and will not hesitate to start beef with anyone in the paddock who dares to tick her off. How angry she gets depends on how pretty the other person is.
- Despite this she’s a really big softy, especially around those she finds aren’t able to fend for themselves properly.
- Bringing up her poetry or chuunibyou antics in front of her either results in embarrassment, anger, or both along with an extra black eye included for free!
- Her and Minami Tsukishima attended the same school and are good friends. They were known among their group of friends for always fighting about silly things, but it was obviously a veil for their 'tension'.
Hibiki Miura
Rank/Archetype: Veteran Lightfooted
Tripwire: @go_biki_go
Gender: Non-binary (they/them)
Age: 45
Birthdate: September 24th
Height: 5’ ft 6” in (168 cm)
Birthplace: Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan
Interests: Association football, fashion, gardening
Personal Achievements: 1994 Japan Junior Grand Prix Series Champion, 2003 GT Superleague NGT runners up, 2004 GT Superleague GT runners up, 2006 J-Speed GT Masters runners up, 2011 Lightning Car Rookie of the Year, 2018 Aeternam EuroSeries champion, 2020 Aeternam GT Superleague champion
