CHAPTER 130: RACE WEEKEND | FRIDAY | WARM UP

Upon returning home, they completed what remained of their preparations and went to rest early to wake up and start their journey back to Italy for his final competition of his international debut.

They arrived at their hotel in the evening, giving them enough time to rest their bodies for tomorrow’s competition.

"Why are you as excited for this as you were for La Conca?" Apollo asked when Fatih entered the VR after they went to sleep.

"Tomorrow, I’m going to get to see the GOAT of F1 drivers, LOGAN SARGEANT," Fatih said, teasing Apollo. He knew Apollo was thinking that he was going to mention Max Verstappen, who would also be in attendance, but in a different category. That had actually made him slightly sad, as he had wanted to have a go against him and see where he stood with his current abilities.

But he wasn’t lying when he said he was excited to see Logan, who was actually going to be there as a teammate, no less. He had seen his name on the list of teammates entering under the RFM team, and Logan was included among them.

It was the first time they were going to meet despite being on the same team. He didn’t even know Logan was on the team until he saw the list. It was not that much of a surprise, as RFM had more than ten drivers in different categories of karting, and he had only met those he participated with in championships on race weekends. After all, it was a racing team, and all their responsibilities were for transporting and providing karts for competitions, not for teaching drivers, as that was the driver’s own responsibility. As a result, there was no reason for him to ever meet other drivers unless it was deliberate.

"..." Apollo found himself speechless at Fatih’s answer.

"What!? I mean, he is one, as he is one of the few drivers to have an assist for the Drivers’ Championship in F1. Not many have that level of influence," Fatih said as he got into his kart for the last pre-race weekend practice around the track he had been driving for the whole of last month.

"You and your weird things," Apollo said, snapping his fingers. Fatih suddenly found himself on the track at full speed, meters from the heaviest braking zone, leaving him less than a second to understand where he was and what course of action to take to avoid a painful crash.

Within that second, he managed to gather all the needed information. He slammed on the brakes with as much force as possible, causing the rears to lock while he turned the front wheel right before counter-steering. He lifted his foot from the brakes amidst constant steering adjustments to maintain the drift through the corner before finally straightening the kart on the next straight. Only then did he bring it to a full stop, taking deep breaths as he was scared shitless. Only thanks to Invictus did he manage to do any of that. He realized that if he had missed by even another second, he would have found himself in a head-on crash with the barriers, and despite knowing that the pain wasn’t real, no one likes being hurt.

"I will crash into you later," Fatih shouted, showing a middle finger to Apollo before he started moving again. His nose twitched as he could hear Apollo’s laughter all the way from where he was, knowing there was nothing he could do in the VR since Apollo could do whatever he wanted in the simulation.

....

Waking up early, they immediately headed to the track to go through all the required activities: registrations, inspections, and finally being allowed to return to their academy tent.

As he walked there with Burak, while his mother, grandmother, and the cameraman went their own way, they kept looking around the now-filled paddock. The WSK Final was not only a KF Junior competition; it had three other higher categories using the track during the same three-day weekend, resulting in the paddock being more crowded than at previous events.

But they didn’t have much time to look around, as they needed to be in the team tent within a few minutes for a pre-session debrief. This would be immediately followed by the drivers’ meeting with the race directors, which in turn would be followed by their category starting their free practice.

"The hero comes with the late entry," Steve joked when Fatih and Burak arrived at the tent, causing all those present to turn to them.

"We had to wait in line at the registration tent," Burak said, placing his hand behind Fatih and giving him a push to go and have a seat.

And there he was: Logan Sargeant, the one-time World Destructors’ Championship winner and a running contender for all the seasons he spent in Formula 1.

"Fatih Yıldırım," Fatih said, extending his hand as he introduced himself.

"Logan Sargeant," said the twelve-year-old GOAT.

"Okay guys, the time for the debrief has arrived, so let’s all have a seat as we have only ten minutes for it," Ricky said to everyone in the tent as he looked at the watch on his wrist, killing the conversation that Fatih was about to start with Logan.

Within a minute, everyone had taken their seats before Ricky opened the dossier in front of him and started speaking.

"I welcome everyone who is here for the competition, and I hope you give your all so that you have no regrets when everything is over. But for that to happen, we need to know what is going to happen and when. There are four categories and more than two hundred drivers overall across the categories, making being on time a very important thing. There will be no surprise free sessions, as the track will be filled with karts for the entire day.

Now, for starters, the KF Junior category. With the final entry list concluded, there are a total of 67 drivers in the competition, which has now been divided into two groups for the free practice session: Even and Odd. Just as it is named, it means drivers with even numbers will be in one group and those with odd numbers in another.

These groups will exist for the three practice sessions each group will have, and the qualifying practice before you will be divided into 5 different groups for the following heats. These new groups will be the ones you will compete in for the qualifying heats.

After that, once again you will be split into two groups, but unlike the previous time, where you were divided using even and odd numbers, this time you will be divided alternately. The odd-ranked drivers will be in Pre-final A and the even-ranked drivers in Pre-final B. These are the most important sessions, since those who finish from 17th onward in each of those groups will be eliminated from the final, as the final will have only 34 drivers.

Today we will only have the free practice and qualifying heats. Tomorrow we will have only the heats, and on Sunday, we will start with the pre-finals and end with the finals.

Any questions?" Ricky asked once he finished going through the timetable for the KF Junior part of the weekend.

No one raised their hands, since this was just a reiteration of information they mostly already knew. The only new information was the total number of drivers and the finalized times in the timetable.

"For the KF category..." Ricky said as he started going through the information for the following categories for their drivers who were in those categories.