Daymar Rally 2950 Wrap Up

Image by Terada

DUST STORMS AND DEVIL ROCKS – THE 2950 DAYMAR RALLY

Let me just start by saying this, ladies and gentlemen – if the 2949 Daymar Rally, the first one run after a ten-year break, was a “proof of concept” for the racing world, then the 2950 event was proof of far more – Proof that Cor5aire’s Daymar Rally Commission is really onto something big.

How big? Let’s just throw around some numbers. 2949’s run featured 36 teams. This year, the field was doubled. The 72 teams in this year’s race were spread across multiple heats in every division – two heats in the Rover division, two heats of hoverbikes, and four in the popular and hotly-contested buggy division. The largest teams fielded as many as XX people at once as pilots, copilots, and support crew – they raced alongside one-man teams with just as much determination and guts. Those teams represented at least 15 nations, and attracted nineteen separate major sponsorships, running the gamut from corporate giants fielding multiple teams in each division to private security corporations that protected the racers, from exclusive yacht clubs catering to VIP race attendees to “gray area” coalitions of independent free thinkers. Official coverage was broadcast in two languages on at least three networks (including the Daymar Rally’s own camera and commentary team), alongside countless team-specific streams. The Rally’s main coverage alone, anchored by the smooth voice of race anchor DTOX with a relentless stream of information from stat coordinator PerCapita, was watched by over 22,000 unique viewers. No fewer than five 890 Jump Superyachts, including Kashaya and MC Newport provided wine, revelry, and prestigious views for dozens of VIP attendees, while also lighting up finish lines and serving as landmarks for some drivers.

This was a race of superlatives, in just about every way.

The bike division, as expected, weathered the “devil rocks” and dust storms a little more ably than the other two divisions, with both higher speeds and no wheels to collide with hidden ground effects. Even when half the division, one entire heat, had to delay their start as a result of the harsh conditions, the hardy riders put in some of the fastest times on record: Bike leaders covered the 90-odd kilometers between Shubin and Eager Flats three times as fast as the quickest buggy, and far faster than the entire rover division. The winning bike team, division 1’s Ocorp, hit the finish after barely an hour and forty-five minutes, with second-place Turbor arriving directly in their wake. Division 2’s fastest team, Magellanic, found third place less than ten minutes later, with three other teams arriving at the finish within about 120 seconds.

Most eyes were on the buggy division, though – as attrition wore through the four heats of Tumbril Cyclones, expectations of a rash of early wrecks were confirmed – but wheel loss wasn’t the killer this year, as it was previously. No, this year saw casualties from the brutal “devil rocks” lying barely exposed in the Daymar dust, unseen until it was too late to stop a speeding cyclone. Between these collisions, zero-visibility canyon jumps due to oppressive dust storms, and the occasional casualty from other sources, the divisions were whittled down by ones and twos. Still, Turbor’s buggy crew hit the finish amazingly quickly – right at the four-hour mark, with the racing teams from Exiles and the Omega Protectorate coming in second and third – again, only minutes after the winner’s arrival. The division that completely fell to attrition in 2949’s rally provided breakneck racing and very close times for the whole of its run, one year later, proving why the buggy division is so popular. Until the very end, the finish was anyone’s guess.

It wouldn’t be the filthiest race in the verse, though, without Daymar deciding when he’d had enough. This year his temper fell hardest on the rover division, which was cut more or less in half early on, as Daymar devoured an entire heat of racers through brutal conditions and voracious predators hidden in the sand – only a single racer was left when the dust settled, a young Daedalus recruit, the ink not even dry on his week-old contract – on foot barely a fourth of the way to Eager Flats. The division seemed to recover, though – their progress through the “Devil Rocks” around Shubin was expected to make for a slow start just as it had in the buggy division, but things stepped up when the other division rounded Eager Flats and started towards Wolf Point, still more than two hundred kilometers away. Yet it simply was not to be.

As dust and heat started to play havoc with rover systems and communications, team after team succumbed, in rapid succession. The last positions called out before Daymar brought the rovers to a halt: Kuroda, 175km to go to Wolf point. Voltic Rain, 198. Polish Space Marines, 200. Less than an hour after the buggy division’s final places had been determined, only three racers remained on the ground on Daymar, still competing to finish. M.E.R.C. would be the last team to finish, hitting Wolf point roughly 4 hours, 45 minutes after leaving Shubin. And then there were two.

Team Hexadian’s buggy had continued on, covering ground with grim determination, as the last vehicle on the field. When M.E.R.C. finished ahead of them, they were within 16 km of the finish. To them belongs perhaps the greatest tragedy of the 2950 rally – their last vehicle and team collapsing, unable to finish, with the elegant profile of a Yacht Club 890 Jump hovering above the finish just over the hill ahead.

Kane, however, would earn himself the overwhelming favor of the crowd on foot, as SCIRE Imperium’s Raideralexis did the year before. For much of the rally, he was literally the only racer surviving in his entire heat – and on foot, he outlasted every other rover team, despite having no hope to cover the distance and take a place at the lead. Everyone cheered for Kane, this year’s “people’s champion”, as he covered 80 km on foot – a distance equivalent to 1.9 marathons – before succumbing to the errant firepower of Daymar’s renegade population. As his teammates debated how to protect him from the criminal element, Kane could be heard saying, “I don’t even know how to draw my weapon – I’m just gonna run!” A petition was immediately started to name the canyon where Kane met his demise after the brave rover driver.

And that was the rally: Ocorp took the Sandman prize for the bike division, with Turbor in second and Magellanic in third. Turbor would be the only team with two places in the finish, adding first place for buggies, with Exiles in second and Omega Protectorate in third. And the Rovers’ fates were decided by distance, as mentioned – Kuroda, Voltic Rain, Polish Space Marines.

In two years of competition, only one team – Exiles – has placed both years (last year, they won the buggy division, which they took second in this year). Of the teams that placed this year, three (Exiles, Kuroda, and Omega Protectorate) raced under the same names in 2949. Some powerhouses from last year’s race, like SCIRE Imperium (#goRaider!), MOG Nation, and Addicted, struggled to stay in the winners’ circle this year but overall at least twelve teams have now competed in both of the “modern” Rally competitions. Veteran teams like M.E.R.C., Skylark, AAWA, SNO, Terra Nova, and Ducklings remain neck-in-neck with the victors, while every year has new faces and new threats, like BRD, the Daedalus Initiative, and Turbor.

The excitement of this year’s race was compelling from start to finish – just like last year. Last year’s Nameless Cup gave way to this year’s Sandman trophy, and the geography may have changed – but Daymar wouldn’t be the same if he just pulled his usual tricks, year after year. With the engines finally cooling down on the 2950 Daymar Rally, we can only home – and expect – that 2951’s race will be as exciting and filthy as ever. Ocorp, Turbor, and Kuroda have a few weeks to exult in their victories, before the months of training, planning, and strategy begin for next year. Will we see Exiles take home a prize for the third year in a row? Will the new blood stay at the head of the back, or will it be a year of resurgent veterans? The only way to know for sure is to be there – like I know I will. Until then, though –

I’ll see you out there,

Billy Hyde