Grade A Amidst The Storm

Barcelona/Montreal, April 2 - VTRP's oldest and biggest series visits both sides of the Atlantic for Round 5 and 6. This is happening amidst the twin bombshells from Aku-Ken Exodia's Shion Murasaki and Promise Formula Holo's Mumei Nanashi, stepping down from further activities in the VTRP and Hololive after Round 8 in Silverstone, effectively marking it as their final race. For their final four races, Chronus Design Labs edited their liveries to thank the fans for the support.

For the Spanish Holo Prix, Myth-Watson's crowd favorite Gura Gawr chomps on pole with Advent Motorsport's Fuwawa Abyssgard right behind her, oddly enough without her twin sister Mococo on the grid. Towa Tokoyami of Force Ubersheep makes her way finally onto the grid in 28th. Miko Sakura's title defense has been dealt another blow as she has been struck out from starting the race altogether, her #01 absent from the grid. Calamity struck immediately as Fuwawa misjudged Turn 1 and ends up 90 degrees away from the track direction, nearly collecting Kiara Takanashi's orange #39 machine and possibly more behind her. The elder Abyssgard luckily saved it but will later suffer a bigger mishap to her race. Two turns later and the embattled Aku-Ken Exodia's Subaru Oozora loses it at Repsol while battling her own teammate Choco Yuzuki. Assetto technicalities took over and into pits she went. Lap 7 came and Turn 1 claims another victim, this time spoiling NPLB Motorsport's Botan Shishiro, beaching her #35 machine trying to battle Ina'nis Ninomae for 9th. One lap later and Iroha Kazama and her #56 comes off worst after a brief 3-wide in Turn 1 with NPLB's Polka Omaru and Advent's Shiori Novella, with the former blasting away moments before Iroha misjudged her angle and beaching her machine near Botan's.

All throughout the race, the battle raged between polesitter Gura and Promise FH's Baelz Hakos, still reeling from teammate's Mumei Nanashi's retirement announcement a few days ago. Anya Melfissa and her #44 along with Hajime Todoroki in her #68 were not that far behind, but far enough from the leading duo, notably both the singers of Deco 27*-made Sweet Appetite featured in 4th FES: Our Bright Parade. Turn 1 claims two more victims in Lap 11, which included current points leader Pekora Usada in her #21. The incident happened when Pekora tangled with H3's Kobo Kanaeru in her #59 going into Turn 1, the Indonesian singing wonder trying to steer her machine back into the track but suffers technical damage, stalling her car. Lap 12 puts down Fuwawa and her #63 in dire straits, spinning out of control contesting Hajime for 4th. Both pay a price but the elder Abyssgard pays the heavier out of the two, pirouetting into the lower midpack. Lap 14 and Myth suffers further woes as Ina gets spun out by Zeta Vestia in her #57 going into Repsol.

Justice ends their race quietly, with their lone car in Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame and her #71 finishing 13th. Lap 22 saw a late surge from Choco to nab the final podium spot away from Anya who also loses out to Hajime lurking behind. Gura clinches a light-to-flag victory with Bae hot on her heels in the later parts of the race as lapped cars became an issue. This marks Gura's third win in VTRP overall and possibly the biggest way one can rid themselves of the cellar. Towa Tokoyami also breaks free of the pointsless cellar in a more modest way, finishing 19th. X Seis' woes continue as their lone survivor finished 36th, that being Koyori Hakui and her #54 and Iroha being involved in a race-ending incident. Outgoing Shion Murasaki finished quite highly at 16th

The paddock then sails the Atlantic and into Montreal, conducting battle in Circuit Gilles Villneuve for Round 6. Calliope Mori sees pole on the same race that saw her debut the series of liveries done by Chronus Design Labs. Lining up alongside her is Mio-fa Tauri's Okayu Nekomata, with the polesitters' close friends Kobo Kanaeru and Irys line up behind the two. It was also outgoing Mumei's time to show up, as Shion was cut off from the Canadian Holo Prix grid.

The race started off normally, Calliope maintaining her lead and Kobo snagging 2nd from Okayu going into the first turns. This however, will belie an impending race of attrition, mainly in the Quebec Wall, famously known in real motorsport as "Wall of Champions". And the first of the many victims of this race was Aki Rosenthal of Red Heart Plasmagic, stalling at Turn 4. Not too far off, Irys also misjudges her angle and ends up with her nose stuck to Turn 4's wall and forcing some drivers into the pits, which sadly includes hometown bet Kronii Ouro. Moona Hoshinova in her #31 also was hit with this technicality, and will be the first to suffer a worse fate: being stuck trying to exit pits. Regloss Motorsport's Ririka Ichijou was the first to fall into the Wall of Champions on Lap 2 while battling staffer Nodoka Harusaki for 7th. Lap 3 is where Calli's lead died a gruesome death as she slammed into the slowly recovering car of NPLB's Nene Momosuzu, the #38 slamming into the #34 at Turn 5. Yet another casualty is claimed by The Wall on Lap 5 as Okayu misjudges her line, spins off, and gets collected by the charging Noel Shirogane in her #23 Usaken Fantasia machine. She then get bopped off by Myth's Ina'nis in her #40 which helped set her back onto the racing line.

Lap 6 saw Aku-Ken Exodia's Ayame Nakiri overcommit into Turn 3 vying for the lead against Kobo and her #59, spinning out in her #13 but thankfully getting back on to the race with a light price paid. Insult to injury would be inflicted on Myth-Watson on Lap 7 as Ina overcooked going into The Wall and she got claimed by Assetto technicalities as she is returned to the pits. Lap 8 saw the fall of two buxoms in Noel and Nerissa, once again getting claimed by The Wall. Lap 12 adds erstwhile race leader and frontrunner Kobo and Ayame to the lengthening list of casualties. This then allowed staffer Nodoka to claim leadership of the Canadian Holo Prix for a time as more cars misjudge the Turn 3-4 complex or the Quebec Wall as the race progressed. Lap 18 saw Nodoka's lead fizzle out as she got blocked by a stricken Miko Sakura, but thankfully got out in 2nd. This opened the door for the bombshell nurse of Aku-Ken, Choco Yuzuki, to take the reins of the race going into the late stage of the race. All this while, the polesitter Calliope Mori made a recovery up to 9th. Tragedy befalls the Reaper's race once more, as on Lap 24, while challenging Matsuri Natsuiro in her #06 Red Heart Plasmagic machine. She too succumbs to the pitlane AI glitch that befell many others in the grid. By the time the white flag waved for Choco, there were only about 13 racers left, with a sizable portion of those laps behind the leading #14. Choco had a nail-biting moment navigating the infamous last turn to finally be marked an FHWC winner after 12 seasons, coming after securing podium in the previous season in Barcelona.

After 2 chaotic races and 6 rounds, only a handful among the roster have the distinction of being able to score points every race. These include Scuderia Genesi's Suisei Hoshimachi, 4th Series Champion Noel Shirogane, Area 15's Iofifteen Airani, and Myth-Watson's Ina'nis Ninomae. The constructors' table sees small shifts, biggest of which is Regloss Motorsport, leapfrogging from 7th to 3rd now. Usaken Fantasia remains the leader, but Scuderia Genesi is now the one on their heels after Justice Racing Team falls a few places into 4th. Advent suffers greatly as they plummet from 8th to 14th, being eclipsed by former cellar dwellers Myth-Watson thanks to Gura's win at Barcelona.

Full story of constructors' here:
https://imgur.com/qsWfYjX
https://imgur.com/Vpf7Tdy

At the drivers' side of things, Iofifteen Airani leads the way with 236 points, followed by Regloss's Hajime Todoroki with 234, and Choco Yuzuki shooting up to third following her win in the chaotic Montreal race. Suisei Hoshimachi rockets to 4th place and former points leader Pekora Usada drops down to 5th following her Barcelona misery.

Full drivers' tally here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRW6oyrNDTjH2TXF7smX5rbNGCim2buCUdqwECA4oxcAvWBClgxKHS8MaV_YUF5k1IwXWM-5ZYDv2JC/pubhtml?gid=1159380018&single=true

Next stops for the FHWC will be Spielberg and Silverstone, which marks the last dance for both Shion and Mumei as the former graduates on raceday, April 26 and the latter doing so herself 2 days after. Past race vods and live coverage are found here:
https://www.youtube.com/@vtuberracing