Playing with PWR - PWRBand Technica narrative storyline

The very same Willow Springs setting a couple years ago was where Nina searched for the truth regarding an urban myth. An amateur time attack event was being held, but the preparation amongst many teams were anything but. Multiple mechanics worked on single cars, all fitted with unique aero parts and thick semi-slick tires. Some had laptops connected to the internal computers, whilst others were simply old fashioned and measured the alignment by hand and tuned the engine by ear.

It soon became evident that Nina was the odd one out. Her designer apparel starkly contrasted with the casual dress code at the event, with many simply in t-shirts, shorts, and baseball caps. Those not in casual apparel were either in jumpsuits or racing suits, walking around the paddock and having conversations with every spectator looking for an inside look into a world not usually experienced by the general public.

Making her way towards the metal bleachers, she then takes a seat in a rather empty section. Her eyes scan around the racing track in front. There seemed to be a group of cars just exiting the pit lane. Her eyes then lock onto one particular machine – a gun metal gray Nissan Skyline GT-R, specifically of the R32 generation. It exits pit lane with a burst of speed, quickly making the left turn to begin its outlap.

She quickly rummaged through her expensive designer bag for the program. Finally going to the street legal unlimited entry list section, she then found the car in question. The Nissan Skyline GT-R R32, piloted by Risa Aoyama from Los Angeles, California. The description of her was as vague as it got, only going through car power and weight, tires, driver age and nationality.

“Looks like the first group of cars in the street legal unlimited class are going out for their final session of the day,” the PA system boomed, “there’s a few well known drivers across the west coast here. We got the Pacific Northwest’s very own Shaun Ferrier in that Seattle Performance Garage AMG GT coming out now.”

Nina laid her eyes on the pit exit, with that bright yellow German coupe blasting out the pit exit. The swan neck wing and massive splitter really seemed inspired by the proper racing car she saw in IMAS competition.

“Another competitor to look out for is Tania Hudson in that wicked 2015 Mustang GT, she won last month’s event here. Let’s see if she can hold it down for the hometown pride here… but then we got that sick silver Skyline that just blew by the start-finish! That’s uh…”

The sound of pages being flicked through leaked through the PA system as the announcer scrambled for information.

“...Risa Aoyama, for Jiang Tuning Co.! That is already a blazing lap!”

Nina watched as that same Skyline whizzed past her, soon ducking down under braking for turn 1. The four wheel drive system then catapulted itself out of the exit, disappearing in a flash. She hastily got the stopwatch app out on her phone, awaiting for this driver to pass by her once again.


“Hey, is this seat taken?” A man appeared next to her, wearing a blue Los Angeles Trolleys baseball cap.

“No, you’re fine.”

The man took a seat, motioning for his group of friends to come sit alongside him.

“Thanks. Oh shit, they started already? Damn, the line to get beer was so long…”

Nina would nod, giving a rather unconvincing acknowledgement of his comment. She’d see that gray shine of light pass by again, pressing the lap button on her screen.

The PA system keyed up once again. “Ladies and gentlemen that is a quick time right there by that #61a Skyline! That’s nearly half a second ahead of Hudson even! Ferrier is right behind them in third at the moment.”

As she peered down at the lap time on her phone Nina then recalled her first few laps as a racing driver around this very same track. In a race-prepped homologated Cayman, that Skyline would still potentially have no trouble hanging onto her. Deep into her astonishment, a nudge jolted her into the present.

“You’re timing that Skyline?” The same man asked. “Can I see what you got down?”

Nodding, Nina would share by tilting the phone screen over towards his direction. Smirking, the man adjusted his baseball cap.

“Yeah. That’s actually not as fast as she went a week ago actually. You should have seen her when we were doing R-Alliance. That chica was matching this R35 no problem – shit was crazy.”

“Do you know this woman?” Nina asked, now giving this person full attention.

“Hell yeah I do. She’s my lil’ sister’s friend.” A thumbs up was given. Another man would appear to sit next to him dressed in an oversized white t-shirt, whom he turned to. “Ayo, Gio. We know that girl in the R32, right?”

“Risa? Yeah, she’s the homie.”

She couldn’t believe her luck.

“Do you know what stall she’s occupying today?”

“We can take you there after. She’s already taken though, if that’s what you were wondering.” A laugh emits from both men, seemingly bouncing off of each other’s supposed humor. “Nah, nah, I’m kidding. I’ll get you there in a bit.”

After the session ended, she followed the two men back towards the paddock area passing by some of the other cars she saw in the session. That AMG GT now parked and being lifted up by jack stands had its driver seemingly befuddled by its performance.

“Man, I just don’t get it,” she overheard from the driver, “we got like twice as much aero but I still can’t get close to her time. If I push any harder I’m gonna eat the dirt.”

Soon Nina laid her eyes upon that same Skyline, simply parked still with the same set of tires with no work being done. A rather striking woman with bright blue hair leaned against the toolbox as she gulped down water from a plastic bottle, taking in information from another blue hued hair girl across from her.

“...the thing is that I’m not sure the track clean up crew got everything out from the last session,” that girl in the mechanic’s jumpsuit said, “so that’s probably why even with the improvements we made you still can’t break through that barrier.”

“Really? It looked alright from where I was.” The driver then removed the top half of her racing suit, exposing a sports bra underneath. Nina couldn’t help but stare for just a moment. “I told you to not let me nap on the way here. I always feel a little slower after just waking up.”

“Ayo, whassup?” The man in the baseball cap up-nodded the couple, dapping up both the mechanic and driver. “Julia, Risa. Risa, I got someone who’s a fan.”

“Heh, I doubt it Julio.” The driver shakes her head. “Plus I already knew Giovanni was my biggest fan.”

“Nahh, nah. Not this foo.” Julio pushes away Giovanni playfully, laughing in jest.

Nina decided to speak up, approaching Risa.

“Hello, I’m Nina Bridgehampton. It’s nice to meet you.” She held a hand in front for a handshake. Risa accepted it, firmly shaking it.

“Hi! I’m glad you came out today. It’s always nice to have people going to these events.”

The mechanic, Julia, wafted up a palm in greeting as well. Nina offered a handshake towards her as well. “Heya, Nina. Love your look.”

“Thank you, miss. Now, excuse me if I am interrupting anything or encroaching on your space, but I was wondering if you’d like to have a chat about a driving opportunity?”
Risa tilted her head, looking over to Julia for a split second before looking back towards her. “Erm, sure. Yeah, I got a few minutes to spare.”

“To be honest…” Nina trailed off for a few moments, placing her hand below her chin. “...I wasn’t sure at first if this trip would come to any fruition.”

Julia cocked up an eyebrow, but allowed this rather proper woman to continue.

“But seeing you drive today was a revelation. In the little amount of time I’ve attempted to scout talent I don’t think I’ve seen anything as raw as yours.”

“Well, that depends on where you’re lookin’.” Julia decided to speak up. “If you’re just looking at these kinds of events you’re not gonna get anywhere.”

“I’ll be to the point and ask if you are willing to perhaps perform in a trial run for PWRBand Technica. To be as transparent as possible with you, we’ll have three other potential talents on the same day; someone coming up from the American open wheel development ladder, another from Mexico who has been racing in Europe, and an older sports car racing veteran.”

Risa’s eyes widened at the request, seemingly shocked at her lofty expectations.

“It’ll be of no cost to you, other than your own transportation to Salinas where we’re holding it. Everyone else is bringing some money to the table, but after I’ve heard rumors of you I decided that maybe I could take a chance with you, especially seeing your talent out there.”

“W-wait, what rumors?” Risa seemed rather bewildered by her comments. “Like, online rumors? I’m sorry, Nina, but I can’t possibly live up to whatever they say about me online.”

“The Moonlight Angel stories?” Julia stepped forward, putting a hand on her hip. “We get those all the time. They’re only just myths and legends. That thing spiraled out of control, we had no hand in that craze.”

“Perhaps. But the offer is there.” Nina reached into her designer handbag, holding out a business card. “Give me a call sometime this upcoming week. It’ll be this next Sunday at Laguna Seca. I’ll be awaiting your response.”

“How do we know you’re legit, though?” Julia interrogated the strange woman, stepping forward to get a closer inspection. “We get guys wanting to run their cars all the time. We don’t want to make the trip for just another club event.”

Nina simply pulled down her sunglasses, looking her right in the eyes.

“Give me a call,” Nina remarked, smirking, “then you’ll find out.”

...

The day arrived. Nina watched as Mexican EuroSeries driver Frida Torres blasted around the track in a Porsche 911 GTC-R. Whilst her skill seemed satisfactory and rather well refined, it did not have the same appeal, nor the sheer confidence and beauty as what she had seen last weekend. Passing by the front stretch Nina clicked off another lap on her digital stopwatch.

“1:24, flat.” She remarked to Katherine, her assistant, next to her. “Not bad.”

“Yeah. Not too bad, honestly.”

“Not too bad?”

“Best lap here was 1:22.9 last season. But gotta account for the conditions and the fact that she doesn’t want to wreck the thing.”

“Right…” Nina sighed, shaking her head.

The car pulled into the pits as the pair approached slowly once it came to a stop. The driver removed her helmet and leaned over the front left wheel area, as if she were inspecting something.

“...do you think you can adjust the setup? This doesn’t feel too good, dess.”

Katherine scoffed.

“Well, maybe we’ll find someone who does feel like it is good enough! Come on…”

“Kat. Enough.” Nina approached Frida, nodding. “You did well. Feel free to stick around. We’ll have you do one more run soon.”

Frida shrugged, hopping over the pit wall and disappearing underneath the team’s pit tent. Nina glared towards her assistant.

“Way to scare her off of signing with the team. She was clearly capable.”

“You might as well drive yourself if you want people like her in the car.”

“And you’re the one who has driving experience?” Her glare would pierce even sharper, leading Katherine to nervously laugh.

“Well… I honestly… don’t think she’s up to par. If you want to move up a class, anyways.”

“Maybe.”

After a round of preparation the next driver was up to give the trial a shot. A shine of blue gleamed as the prospect made her way over the pit wall, dressed in a plain white racing suit. She carried a helmet patterned like a kimono, a pink, white and gold color combination along with a Japanese and an American flag on opposing sides of the visor. Nina smiled as she approached.

“Risa. Glad to see you here.”

“Sorry, again, for making that call so late. I’m glad you were able to make space for me.”

“Don’t worry about it. I had that space open the whole time.”

With the new driver into the car and exiting the pits, Nina watched on with anticipation. The car whizzed by on its outlap as she then checked the onboard footage. The first lap didn’t seem all too special. It was clear she had never driven a car like this before.

“Nina… you sure she’s okay with this?” Katherine watched on with worry. “She’s nowhere near the speed the others were.”

“If what they say about her is true, it should come naturally.”

The Porsche rounded the final corner and then posted its first lap time. Not too great. 1:27.

“That’s the slowest time so far today, but it’s only the first lap.”

“Mmmh… dunno, Nina. At least she’ll be happy to have this experience.”

Shaking her head, it still wasn’t clear if Risa would begin to turn on the pace, or if she’d be able to extract it from this car. It was a completely different type of machine after all – racing slicks, complicated aero, driver assists made to reduce slip as much as possible, it was as far away from a tuned road car as one could get. Even if it shared the same chassis, the philosophy was far too different. Perhaps she’d just let her get her ten laps out the way and thank her for trying anyways. Maybe the internet really did embellish things far too much.

Then the third flying lap was underway.

Deep into the second turn hairpin. Far deeper than anyone before. She thought Risa was for sure going to bury it in the dirt.

The car rotated almost perfectly. Her inputs were controlled chaos. It made no sense, but the delta was a massive gap in the green.

She made the most out of every inch of turns 3 and 4, starkly contrasting her rather conservative approach before. There was even a cloud of dust exiting underneath the car as she just barely overstepped the boundaries of the course exiting 4. Turn 5 was so close to the inside curb that Nina was surprised she didn’t launch off of the sausage deep on the apex. The exit was exploited for every millimeter of space she could use to carry her momentum.

Corkscrew… the hardest part of the circuit. If one didn’t completely nail their braking reference it could undo all of the progress so far. A lock up into the sand was inevitable for those that pushed it too far, or worse. Both Nina and Katherine feared for the worst as the car momentarily locked up on the crest.

To their surprise, the car complied and cut through both curbs coming down the steep incline. It then swung to the right-most side of the racing track, swooping into the fast left hander at turn 9. Two more heart-stopping corners and the lap was done. They could finally breathe.

“...22.71.”

“Bullshit, Nina.”

“Take a look.”

Unfortunately for their nerves, Risa had six more laps.

Each was within a hundredth of her best lap.

Coming to a stop in the box, the 911 shut off its engine as it was then lifted onto the airjacks. Risa got out of the car and removed her helmet, fixing her hair and readjusting the tie to clean up her ponytail.

Nina approached with a serious look on her face, perhaps worrying Risa a slight bit.

“Miss Bridgehampton, is something the matter?”

“Yes, actually. How come you’ve never done this before?”

“Done… what before?”

Shaking her head, Nina simply couldn’t think of the words to use. It took a few moments of looking at her rather expensive sports shoes before then looking up to the driver.

“Do you have a competition license of any sort?”

Risa shook her head.

“No. Only ever did time attack for MSAA and a few organizations here and there.”

“Let’s get you registered, then.”

“Excuse me?”

Nina smiled.

“I need you. Now.”

Risa stood for a moment, unresponsive, before blushing. “What?”

“No. Not like that. I need you to drive for me.”

Quite honestly, however, Nina did need a woman like this in her life. Her driving was enough to even make her swoon.

“I’m taking order of a new Porsche Cup Car tomorrow. You’re driving it this season in the IMAS Porsche Cup this season. We’ll worry about details later. You’re hired. We’ll get you in a GT Suzuka car in a year, tops.”

“What?”

Nina walked away in disbelief. Stepping over the pit wall she then took Katherine by the arm.

“I need you to quickly come up with a contract by Tuesday – the latest. Don’t let this girl get away from us. We don’t know who else is here right now.”

“Holy fuck, Nina. Wait up, we don’t even know her background or anything. We didn’t even have Melanie test the car yet!”

“Let her test it and tell her that we’ll be in touch. I don’t give a single fuck about anyone else right now. Get her in a Porsche Cup seat right fucking now. I couldn’t be arsed to know it’s Sunday. Just get that car and get the entry fee sorted. She’s driving.”

“Nina!” Katherine chased after her as Nina let go of her arm and walked away towards her Taycan. “Nina! We don’t even have any sponsors lined up for such a thing!”

“I’ll pay out of pocket if it comes to that! Just have her in the goddamn car!!”