Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - ROAD TO THE TOP
I wasn’t planning on checking out the 4 episode special for Uma Musume, but the amazing opening caught my eye and convinced me to give it a shot. As I started watching, it was clear to me that this show’s superb animation was supported by some incredible cinematography that helped build the narrative between its leads. As a fun exercise, I wanted to try to highlight some of the directing choices and break down how Uma Musume RTTT gets away with telling so little by showing so much.
Cinematography is the presentation of the visuals in anime. The arrangement of characters in a scene, the lighting, the focus on props or backgrounds: all of these can be encapsulated by “cinematography,” and put in a ton of work for the viewing experience. There are plenty of obvious instances where a show will employ cinematography, but even if you don’t notice it immediately, these choices can have an underlying psychological effect in how you experience a scene. You can dye a scene in blue to enhance the melancholy. You can cut away from a conversation to a nearby prop to reveal a character’s mental state. These visual techniques can easily go underappreciated, and Uma Musume thankfully has some fairly overt examples that we can analyze.
(spoilers for episode 1)
Prologue
Episode one opens up with the Yayoi Sho, a GII race that introduces two of our main leads: Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega. Much of what I want to talk about in this race will come later. But let me give a brief synopsis of the race. Under a slight drizzle, we start off with Avec Blaze* in the lead. Narita Top Road, eager to meet the expectations of her fans and coach, puts on a burst of speed to take the lead. Admiral Vega, who also feels the need to win for a yet undisclosed person, quickly follows up on her heels despite lingering behind the pack. Though it’s a close affair between the two, Narita Top Road clutches her lead and wins the race. She cheerfully waves to the crowd while Admiral Vega regretfully looks on. The episode immediately gives viewers exactly what they’re here for: some hype horse girls racing.
Narita Top Road: the favorite
After the OP, we follow Narita Top Road in her daily school life. Her training starts at dawn, and this is clearly a recurring affair since her coach advises her to take a break.** At school, Narita Top Road is the class president and is admired by her classmates. Between her coach, fans, and friends, there’s plenty of people who acknowledge her drive and expect great things from her. Admiral Vega, noticing a small injury on Narita Top Road’s thigh, brings her outside to put a band-aid on it. In the hallway, Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega confess to one another declare their respective determination to win the upcoming Satsukisho. While Narita Top Road professes her excitement to race along with someone she admires, the light from the windows is always illuminating her face. She is quite literally glowing. Meanwhile, Admiral Vega, who feels hesitant about befriending her rivals, seems to have her face framed in between the path of these light beams. She’s not poorly lit by any means: there is just a clear difference in how our two characters are illuminated. The light is so all over Narita Top Road that she is reflecting light. This light and dark metaphor will persist throughout the episode’s run.
We’re next treated to a brief origin story for Narita Top Road. What helps sell the flashback is the fact that the conversations with the trainer all take place at sunset. This is a great example of the “Against the Setting Sun” trope, where Narita Top Road and the trainer make a goal to conquer the Twinkle Series together. Sunsets can symbolize transitioning to another phase, and here it depicts Narita Top Road’s first step to becoming a pro. We’re also treated to a parallel from an earlier training scene, where Narita Top Road attempts to make a sharp turn from the outside of the pack. She struggles more in this flashback, staggering several times; there is a noticeable improvement in the training scene that took place during the present, where Narita Top Road only staggers once. The mirroring of her first training scene in this flashback confirms Narita Top Road’s consistent practice and diligence. Narita Top Road works from sunrise to sunset, and when you consider the previous paragraph on lighting, it becomes apparent that Narita Top Road can be associated with daylight.
TM Opera O: in the middle
While Satsukisho is expected to be all about Admiral Vega vs. Narita Top Road, we switch unexpectedly to a third character. The ordering of events here was initially a bit confusing for me: we start with a cocky smirk prior to cutting to the eyecatch, with the upper half of the face hidden. When we come back, the first thing we see is an eye: it is TM Opera O waking up at 2 AM, visibly distressed. Then, it cuts to a flashback where TM Opera O is returning to running after an injury. She is all bravado and speaks boldly of her destiny to win every race she enters. She proceeds to win consecutive races, backing up her claims, but is also shown visibly struggling during training. Even so, she proudly declares that her perseverance in the face of adversity is for the audience: TM Opera O lives to win and bask in the cheers of a crowd.
This flashback in my opinion serves to humanize TM Opera O’s larger than life personality: behind her dramatic flair and proud sense of self is someone who worked incredibly hard to get back into shape and still experiences some stress about meeting the standards she set for herself. For instance, her introduction starts with just her mouth, hiding the eyes, which are commonly used to indicate a character’s true nature. Then the show cuts to that portion of the face (eye) that was missing in that first shot, suggesting that the TM Opera O waking up right now is closer to her true self than the more grandiose mask she wears in public. She’ll continue to play this theatrical character in the series, but her introduction serves to let the audience know early on that she’s had her own share of struggles and insecurities.
Admiral Vega: the rival
Finally, we get to Admiral Vega and what she’s doing in preparation for the Satsukisho. We cut to night time, where Admiral Vega leaves to go for a run. She and her roommate, Curren Chan, are placed in different layers (Admiral Vega slightly blurred in the front while Curren Chan is sharp and placed behind her). This arrangement highlights the contrast in their activities: as Curren Chan is clearly winding down the day by brushing her tail, Admiral Vega is off to train.
As she runs along a deserted street with numerous streetlights, Admiral Vega refuses to step into them. In fact, she’s shown running away from the light. The connection to darkness suggests that Admiral Vega’s motivations could be unhealthy. Or, going back to her thoughts in the hallway, Admiral Vega’s avoidance of light could connect to her dogma that she does not need friends or rivals (in this case, Narita Top Road who is the light): she just has to win at all costs. Either way, the lack of lighting for Admiral Vega directly sets her up as the clear rival for Narita Top Road. In the very next scene, Narita Top Road practices in broad daylight to the cheers of her classmates. Lighting and the time of day will play a pivotal role in coloring the interactions between these two characters in the rest of the series.
Final Race
And now we’ve finally arrived at the Satsukisho, a premiere GI race for our trio of leads. Before it begins, Admiral Vega and Narita Top Road meet in the tunnels leading to the racetrack. Even though they are in the exact same location with respect to the light from the exit, Narita Top Road’s face is illuminated while Admiral Vega’s face continues to be shadowed. These two are definitely rivals and antitheses to one another. However, TM Opera O appears from the top of the tunnel exit, the backlighting giving her an almost videogame-boss-like feel; these two were supposed to be focused on one another, but the more menacing opponent may be the one standing above them.
Even if the media has tried to convince you that it’s a close affair between Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega, the cinematography makes it clear that this is Narita Top Road’s race to lose. Despite her cheerful demeanor in training, Narita Top Road is actually very nervous. She’s the last to enter her start gate and, as her classmates and friends cheer her on, we get this shot of Narita Top Road seemingly caged in by her starting gate. These expectations that she’s desperate to meet are beginning to stress her out. As we start the race, you’ll see that many of the shots here mirror that first race, which Narita Top Road won: the stormy clouds and slight drizzle, the shot of her coach right before the dramatic last minute spurt from Narita Top Road to take the lead, and even the brief proximity of Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega give the impression that we’ve seen this exact race before.
But unlike the race at the start of the episode, TM Opera O arrives to steal the show! There’s an incredible panning shot that zooms in on TM Opera O as she makes a break for the lead, emphasizing her approach. But then she flies past the camera, and the shot becomes an inverted zoom away. Not only does this shot give the viewer the sense of being left in the dust like her opponents, but the upside down perspective makes it clear that this result is an upset and, dare I say it, has flipped expectations. TM Opera O snatches victory from Narita Top Road’s hands, shattering the projection of a repeat of the first race’s results.*** She rightfully basks in the glory she anticipated earlier in the episode.
At the end, Narita Top Road is devastated. While TM Opera O celebrates, Narita Top Road’s sweaty face is pushed to the background: it’s a very familiar position for Admiral Vega. The mirroring of shots throughout this final race really gives this single episode a sense of completion, and that we’ve come full circle in spite of the different results. Despite the loss, the episode ends with Narita Top Road’s refusal to give in: a literal ray of sunshine breaks through the clouds and illuminates her as she holds her head high. Her hopes for a GI win have yet to be dashed, and she’ll have three more episodes to get her revenge. Meanwhile, Admiral Vega finished a dismal 6th, and her posture here is even more slumped than in the first race. Maybe it’s an injury bothering her, or perhaps it’s from the increasing weight of her failed expectations physically pushing her down. We’ll have to see in episode two if she’ll be able to find the same strength to raise her head.
Conclusion
As you watch the next three episodes, you’ll find the same impeccable directing throughout. They’ll continue to mirror previous shots to help depict the evolving relationships between characters and utilize lighting to contrast Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega. There are so many awesome shots littered throughout the show and despite my qualms for some of the story elements, my attention was captured by both the stellar race animation and the thoughtful cinematography. Even if you’re not that interested in horse girls, consider giving this short ONA a shot.****
Thanks to u/MyrnaMountWeazel for reviewing my essay!
*Is her name actually Astral Blaze?
**There’s a fun pair of shots here between the coach and Narita Top Road, but I wasn’t sure what this could mean outside of (spoilers) some potential communication issues between Narita Top Road and her trainer in the later episodes.
***I really was hoping that TM Opera O being in the 12th position and winning was a cinematic choice referencing Narita Top Road winning the first race in the 12th position, but no it is an actual coincidence.
****This was supposed to be a funny post about horse feet but I got lost in the directing sauce.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - ROAD TO THE TOP
I wasn’t planning on checking out the 4 episode special for Uma Musume, but the amazing opening caught my eye and convinced me to give it a shot. As I started watching, it was clear to me that this show’s superb animation was supported by some incredible cinematography that helped build the narrative between its leads. As a fun exercise, I wanted to try to highlight some of the directing choices and break down how Uma Musume RTTT gets away with telling so little by showing so much.
Cinematography is the presentation of the visuals in anime. The arrangement of characters in a scene, the lighting, the focus on props or backgrounds: all of these can be encapsulated by “cinematography,” and put in a ton of work for the viewing experience. There are plenty of obvious instances where a show will employ cinematography, but even if you don’t notice it immediately, these choices can have an underlying psychological effect in how you experience a scene. You can dye a scene in blue to enhance the melancholy. You can cut away from a conversation to a nearby prop to reveal a character’s mental state. These visual techniques can easily go underappreciated, and Uma Musume thankfully has some fairly overt examples that we can analyze.
(spoilers for episode 1)
Episode one opens up with the Yayoi Sho, a GII race that introduces two of our main leads: Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega. Much of what I want to talk about in this race will come later. But let me give a brief synopsis of the race. Under a slight drizzle, we start off with Avec Blaze* in the lead. Narita Top Road, eager to meet the expectations of her fans and coach, puts on a burst of speed to take the lead. Admiral Vega, who also feels the need to win for a yet undisclosed person, quickly follows up on her heels despite lingering behind the pack. Though it’s a close affair between the two, Narita Top Road clutches her lead and wins the race. She cheerfully waves to the crowd while Admiral Vega regretfully looks on. The episode immediately gives viewers exactly what they’re here for: some hype horse girls racing.
After the OP, we follow Narita Top Road in her daily school life. Her training starts at dawn, and this is clearly a recurring affair since her coach advises her to take a break.** At school, Narita Top Road is the class president and is admired by her classmates. Between her coach, fans, and friends, there’s plenty of people who acknowledge her drive and expect great things from her. Admiral Vega, noticing a small injury on Narita Top Road’s thigh, brings her outside to put a band-aid on it. In the hallway, Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega confess to one another declare their respective determination to win the upcoming Satsukisho. While Narita Top Road professes her excitement to race along with someone she admires, the light from the windows is always illuminating her face. She is quite literally glowing. Meanwhile, Admiral Vega, who feels hesitant about befriending her rivals, seems to have her face framed in between the path of these light beams. She’s not poorly lit by any means: there is just a clear difference in how our two characters are illuminated. The light is so all over Narita Top Road that she is reflecting light. This light and dark metaphor will persist throughout the episode’s run.
We’re next treated to a brief origin story for Narita Top Road. What helps sell the flashback is the fact that the conversations with the trainer all take place at sunset. This is a great example of the “Against the Setting Sun” trope, where Narita Top Road and the trainer make a goal to conquer the Twinkle Series together. Sunsets can symbolize transitioning to another phase, and here it depicts Narita Top Road’s first step to becoming a pro. We’re also treated to a parallel from an earlier training scene, where Narita Top Road attempts to make a sharp turn from the outside of the pack. She struggles more in this flashback, staggering several times; there is a noticeable improvement in the training scene that took place during the present, where Narita Top Road only staggers once. The mirroring of her first training scene in this flashback confirms Narita Top Road’s consistent practice and diligence. Narita Top Road works from sunrise to sunset, and when you consider the previous paragraph on lighting, it becomes apparent that Narita Top Road can be associated with daylight.
While Satsukisho is expected to be all about Admiral Vega vs. Narita Top Road, we switch unexpectedly to a third character. The ordering of events here was initially a bit confusing for me: we start with a cocky smirk prior to cutting to the eyecatch, with the upper half of the face hidden. When we come back, the first thing we see is an eye: it is TM Opera O waking up at 2 AM, visibly distressed. Then, it cuts to a flashback where TM Opera O is returning to running after an injury. She is all bravado and speaks boldly of her destiny to win every race she enters. She proceeds to win consecutive races, backing up her claims, but is also shown visibly struggling during training. Even so, she proudly declares that her perseverance in the face of adversity is for the audience: TM Opera O lives to win and bask in the cheers of a crowd. This flashback in my opinion serves to humanize TM Opera O’s larger than life personality: behind her dramatic flair and proud sense of self is someone who worked incredibly hard to get back into shape and still experiences some stress about meeting the standards she set for herself. For instance, her introduction starts with just her mouth, hiding the eyes, which are commonly used to indicate a character’s true nature. Then the show cuts to that portion of the face (eye) that was missing in that first shot, suggesting that the TM Opera O waking up right now is closer to her true self than the more grandiose mask she wears in public. She’ll continue to play this theatrical character in the series, but her introduction serves to let the audience know early on that she’s had her own share of struggles and insecurities.
Finally, we get to Admiral Vega and what she’s doing in preparation for the Satsukisho. We cut to night time, where Admiral Vega leaves to go for a run. She and her roommate, Curren Chan, are placed in different layers (Admiral Vega slightly blurred in the front while Curren Chan is sharp and placed behind her). This arrangement highlights the contrast in their activities: as Curren Chan is clearly winding down the day by brushing her tail, Admiral Vega is off to train. As she runs along a deserted street with numerous streetlights, Admiral Vega refuses to step into them. In fact, she’s shown running away from the light. The connection to darkness suggests that Admiral Vega’s motivations could be unhealthy. Or, going back to her thoughts in the hallway, Admiral Vega’s avoidance of light could connect to her dogma that she does not need friends or rivals (in this case, Narita Top Road who is the light): she just has to win at all costs. Either way, the lack of lighting for Admiral Vega directly sets her up as the clear rival for Narita Top Road. In the very next scene, Narita Top Road practices in broad daylight to the cheers of her classmates. Lighting and the time of day will play a pivotal role in coloring the interactions between these two characters in the rest of the series.
And now we’ve finally arrived at the Satsukisho, a premiere GI race for our trio of leads. Before it begins, Admiral Vega and Narita Top Road meet in the tunnels leading to the racetrack. Even though they are in the exact same location with respect to the light from the exit, Narita Top Road’s face is illuminated while Admiral Vega’s face continues to be shadowed. These two are definitely rivals and antitheses to one another. However, TM Opera O appears from the top of the tunnel exit, the backlighting giving her an almost videogame-boss-like feel; these two were supposed to be focused on one another, but the more menacing opponent may be the one standing above them.
Even if the media has tried to convince you that it’s a close affair between Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega, the cinematography makes it clear that this is Narita Top Road’s race to lose. Despite her cheerful demeanor in training, Narita Top Road is actually very nervous. She’s the last to enter her start gate and, as her classmates and friends cheer her on, we get this shot of Narita Top Road seemingly caged in by her starting gate. These expectations that she’s desperate to meet are beginning to stress her out. As we start the race, you’ll see that many of the shots here mirror that first race, which Narita Top Road won: the stormy clouds and slight drizzle, the shot of her coach right before the dramatic last minute spurt from Narita Top Road to take the lead, and even the brief proximity of Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega give the impression that we’ve seen this exact race before.
But unlike the race at the start of the episode, TM Opera O arrives to steal the show! There’s an incredible panning shot that zooms in on TM Opera O as she makes a break for the lead, emphasizing her approach. But then she flies past the camera, and the shot becomes an inverted zoom away. Not only does this shot give the viewer the sense of being left in the dust like her opponents, but the upside down perspective makes it clear that this result is an upset and, dare I say it, has flipped expectations. TM Opera O snatches victory from Narita Top Road’s hands, shattering the projection of a repeat of the first race’s results.*** She rightfully basks in the glory she anticipated earlier in the episode.
At the end, Narita Top Road is devastated. While TM Opera O celebrates, Narita Top Road’s sweaty face is pushed to the background: it’s a very familiar position for Admiral Vega. The mirroring of shots throughout this final race really gives this single episode a sense of completion, and that we’ve come full circle in spite of the different results. Despite the loss, the episode ends with Narita Top Road’s refusal to give in: a literal ray of sunshine breaks through the clouds and illuminates her as she holds her head high. Her hopes for a GI win have yet to be dashed, and she’ll have three more episodes to get her revenge. Meanwhile, Admiral Vega finished a dismal 6th, and her posture here is even more slumped than in the first race. Maybe it’s an injury bothering her, or perhaps it’s from the increasing weight of her failed expectations physically pushing her down. We’ll have to see in episode two if she’ll be able to find the same strength to raise her head.
As you watch the next three episodes, you’ll find the same impeccable directing throughout. They’ll continue to mirror previous shots to help depict the evolving relationships between characters and utilize lighting to contrast Narita Top Road and Admiral Vega. There are so many awesome shots littered throughout the show and despite my qualms for some of the story elements, my attention was captured by both the stellar race animation and the thoughtful cinematography. Even if you’re not that interested in horse girls, consider giving this short ONA a shot.****
*Is her name actually Astral Blaze?
**There’s a fun pair of shots here between the coach and Narita Top Road, but I wasn’t sure what this could mean outside of (spoilers) some potential communication issues between Narita Top Road and her trainer in the later episodes.
***I really was hoping that TM Opera O being in the 12th position and winning was a cinematic choice referencing Narita Top Road winning the first race in the 12th position, but no it is an actual coincidence.
****This was supposed to be a funny post about horse feet but I got lost in the directing sauce.

FRIDAY

• Animazement, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh
• ACC Baseball Championship, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham
• Carolina Fear Fest, NC State Fairgrounds - Jim Graham Building, Raleigh
• Carolina Premium Outlets Carnival, Carolina Premium Outlets, Smithfield
• Gabriel Iglesias, Raleigh Improv, Cary
• Jeff Arcuri, Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Rahmein Mostafavi, Room 861 at Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Performances at the Page: Sabor y Cultura, Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary
• NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship, WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary
• 16-Bit Boom: The '90s Party, The Honeysuckle At Lakewood, Durham
• Criso / Analog Future / Craeons / Apah, The Fruit, Durham
• Mallarme Music Concert: Bach Lit, Durham Arts Council, PSI Theater, Durham
• Carolina Flyers Ultimate Disc +, Durham County Memorial Stadium, Durham
• Freight Train Blues Concert Series, Carrboro Town Commons, Carrboro
• Baggage, The Halle Cultural Arts Center, Apex
• Art Reception: Fine Arts League of Cary, Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary
• Author Event: Patricia Tanumihardja, Page 158 Books, Wake Forest
• BigBabyGucci Homesick Tour, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
• Black Tusk, Sadistic Ritual, Demiser, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh
• Rinker Buck Life on the Mississippi, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh
• Last Fridays & the Art Walk!, Downtown, Hillsborough

SATURDAY

• Animazement, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh
• Summerfest Opening Night: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Raleigh
• Family Movie Night, E. Carroll Joyner Park, Wake Forest
• Carolina Premium Outlets Carnival, Carolina Premium Outlets, Smithfield
• ACC Baseball Championship, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham
• Gabriel Iglesias, Raleigh Improv, Cary
• Carolina Fear Fest, NC State Fairgrounds - Jim Graham Building, Raleigh
• MUSEUM UNTOLD TOUR, NCMNS, Raleigh
• Jeff Arcuri, Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Taste of Soul NC (Variety Edition), Durham Central Park, Durham
• Repticon, North Carolina State Fairgrounds – Exposition Center, Raleigh
• Moore Square Vintage Market, Moore Square, Raleigh
• Legends for Youth Clinic, DBAP, Durham
• Memorial Day Remembrance Event, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Durham
• Walk for the Animals, Duke East Campus, Durham
• Alley Twenty Six Cocktail Syrup Tasting at Durham’s Casa Bella Market, Casa Bella Market, Durham
• The Backseat Lovers: Waiting To Spill World Tour, The Ritz, Raleigh
• Narrow Head / Graham Hunt, The Pinhook, Durham
• Geoff Clapp Trio, Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham
• Frontside, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh
• Downtown Live Outdoor Music, Downtown, Chapel Hill

SUNDAY

• Animazement, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh
• Animazement Cultural Concert and Performance, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh
• Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh
• Triangle Wind Ensemble Concert: The Music of John Williams, Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary
• NC Sugar Rush, City Plaza, Raleigh
• ACC Baseball Championship, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham
• Memorial Day Remembrance Event, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Durham
• NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship, WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary
• Slow Teeth w/ 1970s Film Stock, Rubies on Five Points, Durham
• Zelda, The Fruit, Durham
• REZN and ORYX, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh
• First Flush Fest, Camellia Forest Nursery & Tea Gardens, Chapel Hill
• K. Flay, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
• Live Concert: ASAVA / Condado / Weymouth, Ruby Deluxe, Raleigh

​
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Motor racing always attracts some…interesting individuals.
We see it all the time on the grid of a Formula 1 Grand Prix there’s always a famous individual who everyone points at and goes “Ooooooohhhhhhh! What are they doing here?”
Some of these individuals get bitten by the bug and take up motor racing themselves. Actors like Eric Bana, Michael Fassbender and Patrick Dempsey have all made a pretty good fist of it. Wealthy businessmen often take it up as their hobby. GT racing is practically catered for them these days.
Other interesting individuals sometimes realise that they’re not all that crash-hot at driving but still keen to be involved in the sport, and go for the team ownership, management or sponsor role instead. They build-up, buy or sponsor a race team to promote their business because…well, if you had the money, why not?
Currently, in Australia we have a gentleman by the name of Peter Adderton who fits the bill. Adderton and his Boost Mobile telco company have been a sponsor of motor racing in Australia for a number of years but due to his, how can I put this diplomatically? We’ll go with ‘outspoken attitude’, he hasn’t won many people over. I was talking to a friend the other day who was saying how they couldn’t stand Adderton’s constant mouthing off on social media over some small detail of the Supercars Championship that he doesn’t like. My response was “Yeah, he’s a bit annoying but at least he’s not Craig Gore.”
And then I thought of this sub.
So, gather round folks and let me tell you all the story of the worst team and team owner in V8 Supercars history.
Now Craig Gore is a gentleman who is known for many things. Not many of them give a glowingly positive impression of the man so I’ll do my best to stick to the facts.
Gore is the son of a successful property developer and after leaving school, he worked all sorts of jobs from running a chain of pizza stores to creating an advertising agency. Some of these ventures went well while others…sort of…went a bit bankrupt.
In 1996, Gore started his own home loan business initially called Right Home Loans, although it became better known as Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Services (henceforth shortened to WPS). WPS grew to be a very successful company. At one point it was one of Australia’s largest independent financial service companies, employing well over 500 people.
Gore also followed in his father’s footsteps and branched out into property development and wine exporting.
Bottom line is this: this guy is loaded. And as we all know if you’re the son of a wealthy property tycoon, born into money, you totally won’t be a brash, egotistical, jerk of a human, right?
Right?
So how does he fit into motorsport?
He first popped up towards the back end of the 2003 V8 Supercars season as a sponsor on privateer Mark Noske’s Ford Falcon. The bug must have really bitten because Gore very quickly went looking for a team to buy. He reasoned owning a team was better than sponsoring one. You’re in charge of your own destiny that way. Gore purchased what was left of the 00 Motorsport team (2 Ford Falcon BA’s and a transporter) and the licences that it raced under and set about plans for 2004 and years beyond (and when I say, ‘years beyond’, what I actually mean is the next 3 or 4 years).
For those wondering, the V8 Supercars Championship is arguably the best touring car (or sedan) championship in the world. Until recently, it was for 4-door, 5-litre V8 engine Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons. It’s evolved over the years, but it continues to produce brilliant racing. (Today, it’s simply referred to as Supercars) In the late ‘90’s & early ‘00’s the category was booming. Gore noticed this and thought it would be a good way of promoting his various businesses.
Gore said of his entrance to V8 racing: “I was a guest in a corporate suite at Indy (the Gold Coast IndyCaCART/Champ Car street race at Surfers Paradise) and, apart from going to the odd race with my dad as a kid, I haven’t really been interested”
Riiiiiiiiight… This going to go well… But hey, he’s a clever businessman. At least he’ll recognise that he might need to lose a bit of money initially for his team to become successful. Right?
Right?
Ignoring the age-old sayings of ‘If you want to be a millionaire, be a billionaire and take up motor racing’ or ‘To make a small fortune out of motor racing, make sure you start with a large one’ Gore went on to say:
“Look I’m getting into this to make money. I want to make that clear. Losing is not an option.”
Oh Craig…
To be fair, you can make money out of motor racing, but it takes time. You need to invest in your team, your assets, the commercial side of the business and intimately understand the sport and how it works. The category you’re racing in must also be economically viable as well. Making money is possible, but it takes time and you need to know the business of car racing inside and out. You can’t just throw money at it and expect it to come back tenfold in an instant. You understand that right, Mr Gore?
Mr Gore?
Craig?
In February 2004 at the Brisbane Motor Show two new V8 Supercar teams revealed themselves to the world. Both of these teams had dreams and drive, although only one would end up realising them (Hint: it wasn’t WPS).
On the Ford Australia stand, one of the teams was Triple Eight Race Engineering, an incredibly successful British Touring Car team who had brought out the solid mid-level Briggs Motorsport team with the dream of turning it into a V8 Supercar powerhouse. They had bought the team in mid 2003, about the same time as Gore started as a sponsor, but 2004 was officially the start of their journey.
And then far from the glitzy Ford stand on a dimly lit concourse, Gore’s WPS Racing pulled the covers off their first V8 challenger, also a Ford, proudly boasting of the $10 million that they were planning to throw at motor racing in Australia and beyond. As an aside, the WPS Racing Fords looked the part. Their gleaming black and silver paint schemes looked properly menacing. Unfortunately looks aren’t everything.
Gore hired two drivers. The first and ultimately the lead driver was David Besnard whilst the second was Mark Noske whom he has sponsored the previous year. Now both Besnard and Noske are far from the worst drivers who have ever parked their bum in the seat of a V8 Supercar. Having said that, they’re also far from the best. Besnard occasionally showed flashes of brilliance but also moments of sheer comedic stupidity (most of which will be covered here). Noske was solid if unspectacular.
So as the 2004 V8 Supercar Championship began, let’s just look objectively at WPS Racing. A brand-new team, running second-hand cars, 2 average drivers and at the head is an egotistical, brash, rich guy who, by his own admission, doesn’t know much about motor racing.
Sounds like a recipe for success! Let’s get underway!
2004
WPS Racing made headlines several times over the 2004 season. Only one of those times was it good news, and even then there was controversy attached. Here, in no particular order are their highlights (or should that be lowlights?):
• At the New Zealand round, David Besnard showed up at the track and realised he left his helmet back at the hotel. His helmet, for God sake! On finding out, Gore fined him (his own driver!) $10 000 on the spot saying “You fuckin’ what? You’re a fuckin’ driver and you’ve left your fuckin’ helmet at the hotel!” (Like I said, Besnard did on occasion show promise but sometimes…ish. And this wouldn’t be the last time)
• A sporting journalist ran a column that began with ‘Cantankerous team owner Craig Gore…’ The morning it was published he received a phone call from Gore that began with “Now listen, you fucking \&$!...”* to which the journalist replied “Hi Craig. Is there a problem?” Gore went on to yell down the phone: “Yes, there fucking is! Do you know what ‘cantankerous’ means? Look it up in the dictionary! I’m not cantankerous!” (Because nothing says “I’m not cantankerous” more than ringing someone up to yell at them that you’re not in fact cantankerous, amirite?)
• Mark Noske left the team halfway through the year. They went through several drivers in the second car over the rest of the year.
• At the Symmons Plains round, both of the team’s Ford Falcons were black-flagged from the morning warm-up for running with windscreen banners that read ‘No money from Ford’ in protest to the lack of financial support from the manufacturer. Although Ford supported all of their teams through free body panels, only some teams received financial support (typically the good ones). Gore made his thoughts on that very clear. The team was ordered to cover the banners up for the race.
Amazingly, later that day during the race, a well-timed pitstop and a cock-up with the safety car had Besnard in the lead. The hilarious part of this is that the officials and race director all thought “There’s no way that the WPS car is the leader, wave it through and pick up the guys who were leading beforehand.”
It took a week to sort it all out before they realised that it wasn’t the case. Besnard was there legitimately. And so it came to be that WPS Racing in their first year in V8 Supercar competition won a race a week after it had been run with their car running with a frantically tapped over windscreen banner protesting their lack of support. You cannot make this up!
Now whist the unlikely Symmons Plains victory seems like the most unforgettable moment, it in fact isn’t. If you were to ask a V8 Supercar diehard fan what the most memorable thing about WPS Racing is, chances are they’ll grin and say the 2004 Sandown 500.
Traditionally, this race is considered a warm-up event to the Bathurst 1000. Co-drivers are brought into the mix for the first time and it’s a mini-enduro so it’s a good gauge and a good form guide for the big race at Bathurst a couple of weeks later.
Joining Besnard was Charlie O’Brien who was an 11th hour replacement for an unwell Neil McFadden and in the second car, Kiwi John McIntye was joined by Malaysian ex-F1 driver Alex Yoong.
The race was a complete and utter shambles due to weather that had occurred earlier in the week. Heavy rain in the lead-up turned the grass into mud and gravel traps into slushy bog holes. Despite race day being fine and sunny, the message was clear: Do not fall off the track or you will get bogged.
Not many drivers listened. A ridiculous 12 safety cafull course caution periods occurred in the race. All of them were caused by a car flying off the track and getting bogged down and here’s the kicker: Half of these safety car periods were caused by the two WPS Fords. Half of them! It started at the first corner of the first lap when Besnard flew off and it didn’t get much better from there. Both cars were involved in various other spins and scrapes throughout the race as well. The post-race joke was that WPS actually stood for We Produce Safety Cars. Which is even more ironic when you consider that WPS actually sponsored the safety car at the time.
At the end of the race both cars looked hideous. They were caked in several layers of dirt and mud. Cars have completed the Dakar rally looking better than the WPS cars did at Sandown.
Here’s the footage of all the incidents the WPS cars had throughout the race. It’s one of those “It can’t possibly get any worse… Ooh, wait. Give it a minute…” videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oJEaK35gc0
And the thing is that’s not even the worst part. No, the worst, most jaw-dropping part of this was Craig Gore’s post event summary. It’s… It’s a trip. Normally I’d post a link and just recount the highlights here, but the whole damn thing is honestly a highlight. Here it is in all its glory:
DEVESTATING RESULT
First the summary. Disgusting, disappointing, absolutely gutted, heartache for the team and any fans we have left.
I look at the result and look back on the four weeks of constant effort we applied in both theory and practice in preparation for Sandown and I can only say I am astounded and disappointed.
Our driver, and I’m thinking especially of Bezzy (Besnard) when I say this, took it upon himself to be a superstar and went against every plan we put together…and that was after just one bloody turn into a 500km race.
He deserves to have his nuts cut out and put on his ears. I haven’t been able to speak to him since I gave him a serve after the race.
It was disappointing that his co-driver Neil McFayden got crook ahead of the race but, to his credit, Neil did push on during practice on Friday.
It was a set-back when he was ruled unfit to continue but he is a talented kid and has a lot of racing ahead of him. You don’t win the races he has won and then go out and not put a time on the board and Sandown unless something is up.
When we were forced to replace him with Charlie O’Brien it made it a little difficult but it certainly wasn’t an insurmountable problem.
I’m ashamed of the result we ultimately delivered to the team, the sponsors, my fellow board members, all our staff and, most importantly, my bank manager (ha ha).
The team worked their arses off and they had our cars going sensationally, as you would have seen by the times we were clocking on the Friday. But as things fell apart we fell apart. We tried too hard to recover.
Bezzy is a seriously talented driver. He just needs to understand this is a team sport and requires a team effort to win. Unless he understands that and starts to recognise that I’m afraid he won’t taste a V8 Supercar victory again. Let’s hope he turns it around.
Our other car, with Alex Yoong and John McIntyre, did a great job until the mid stages of the race when I reckon fatigue got the better of both of them. From then our plans fell apart and we failed to recover.
Overall it was a good effort by John and Alex but in the future we need to stay focused for the entire race.
In summary, I believe difficult situations are presented to warn off the weak. I’m devastated we embarrassed ourselves and the sport but I’m committed to turning it round and I’m here for the next three years whether I like it or not & and whether you fans like it or not.
In any case, I don’t take any solace in that Zig Ziggler positive bullshit that says from your worst comes your best (blah blah blah). We were a complete and absolute embarrassment.
I hope Bezzy engages his brain next time he get in the car and leads by example so the other drivers in the team have something to follow.
At Bathurst he has to understand that you can’t have any off-road excursions without risking your life. If he starts to think about that when gets in the car then he might be more focused on keeping it on the god damn bitumen and leading his them, as a good leader should lead, by example to victory.
Victory for us at Bathurst would be finishing the race without coming off and sticking to the f\**ing race plan.*
Check ya,
Gory
What can I say? There’s being honest, there’s being brutally honest and then there’s Craig Gore.
When the season ended Besnard sat a lowly 30th in the standings and Noske after only running half the year was 35th. (To be fair, Besnard did miss two races at the Gold Coast round to race a Champ Car. The V8’s and the Champ Car World Series shared the Gold Coast event and being a Gold Coast local, Gore thought an Aussie on the grid would be a good drawcard so, just a month after publicly announcing that Besnard deserved to have bits of his anatomy stuck to his ears, Gore sponsored him in the big race! For the record he finished a respectable 7th)
So 2004: Not exactly the best of debuts but hey, onwards and upwards! 2005 is a new year.
2005
For their second season, WPS had a more stable line-up. Besnard was retained and joining him was Craig Baird. Although he never quite achieved success in a V8 Supercar, Baird was a highly competent driver. So, there’s stability here. This should be a good year, right?
Right?
To be fair, WPS Racing did improve…kind of. Baird finished the year 23rd and Besnard was 25th. So that’s improvement. Not by much but it’s something. Both cars were inside the top 25 this time. Their best finish was 8th at the Bathurst 1000.
The only notable moment was a massive crash that Craig Baird was involved in at the New Zealand round when Paul Dumbrell attempted a rather ambitious pass that ended in both cars having significant damage. Footage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh1A819nHxo The incident wasn’t Baird’s fault, so Gore reacted to it in a calm and rational manner. Didn’t you Craig?
Craig?
“I will explore every legal option to see if he (Dumbrell) should have a licence, he just doesn’t seem to give a shit. If I have to, I’ll buy a franchise (a V8 Supercar franchise is like a licence to compete for each individual car) off Larry (Perkins-Dumbrell’s boss) and sack him!” Gore raged to the media afterwards. (Ultimately he didn’t)
In 2005, Gore also expanded his racing interests to the other side of the Pacific and the Champ Car World Series. Having sponsored Besnard in a one-off the previous year, he got much more serious for ’05 sponsoring a whole 2-car team, Walker Racing, to promote his ‘Aussie Vineyards’ wine exporting business under the name “Team Australia”. NASCAR fans may also remember 2006 when Marcos Ambrose started out in trucks, Gore sponsored the truck. (Not exactly sure how much business an Aussie wine exporting business would gain from NASCAR fans but hey at least it got Ambrose’s foot in the door and helped kick-start a respectable carer in the US.)
2006
Prior to the 2006 season kicking off, WPS Racing were looked at quite favourably thanks to some big changes. The big one was the appointment of one Mark Larkham as team manager. If you watch Supercars today, you’ll know ‘Larko’ as the brilliant pitlane reporter who can explain the highly technical sport of motor racing in a way that even an old lady with dementia can understand, but in 2006 he had just closed the doors on his own team. Therefore, a lot of Larkham’s team/personnel was absorbed into WPS Racing. Besnard and Baird were still in the team but demoted to enduro co-drivers. Their full-time seats were taken over by Jason Bargwanna (one of Larkham’s drivers) and Brazilian Max Wilson, one of the few non-Australian/New Zealand drivers to have a decent crack at V8 racing. Gore suddenly had some people who knew what they were doing.
Only two things really marred the year. One was Max Wilson spectacularly putting his car on its side at the Oran Park round and Gore, still pissed off about a lack of financial support from Ford, running windscreen banners that read ‘Independant’ (that’s not my misspelling either. They literally couldn’t be bothered to spell check) stating that it was “a message to his friend Tom (Tom Gorman was the head of Ford Australia at the time). This is not a political statement. We have not received support from any manufacturer.”
But aside from that they finished the year a much-improved 14th (Bargwanna) and 15th (Wilson) in the championship. They had multiple top 10 finishes and, for the most part looked like a reasonably professional race team.
On the other side of the pacific, the Team Australia Champ Car program was going well when one of their drivers, a young kid called Will Power, won rookie of the year. Fair to say he’s excelled since then…
So 2006 was actually a pretty good year for Gore on the race track. For 2007, he’ll surely try and consolidate this and really build upon it to…
Yeah, guess what…
2007
2007 started and Mark Larkham was out. He just left. Still to this day, he hasn’t said why but it’s probably easy to guess…
And without a decent team manager, do you think WPS Racing went forward or backwards?
They had average year on track, but Gore really made headlines off-track by launching a scathing attack on the team’s representative John Hewson. Hewson was a retired politician but also real motorsport enthusiast. Even at the height of his political career, he was a regular at the racetrack. He even joined a pit crew for Bathurst on occasion. He loved it. There were rumours that he was thinking about challenging to become CEO of V8 Supercars. Gore wasn’t a fan of him and at the Ipswich round of the championship, WPS Racing’s merchandise stand was distributing shirts that read ‘stay out of our sport, Hewson’. The team was fined $25 000 for bringing the sport into disrepute.
Gore then went onto attack his fellow team owners, in particular, singling out Triple Eight’s Roland Dane saying, “If I went to war, I’d make sure he (Dane) was front of me and not behind me.”
In what can only be described as a jealous rant, he went onto say “What he’s done with Vodafone (Triple Eight’s naming rights sponsor at the time) is fucking amazing. He’s got the cars, he’s got the drivers. Not only the on-track stuff, but all of the off-track marketing that he’s doing. He’s fucking braining them. It’s unbelievable what he’s done but I hate him with a passion. I tell you what…he will be very, very difficult to contain, that bloke…”
They were quite prophetic words because…well, here’s the thing, Gore and Dane had been in V8 racing for the same amount of time. Gore had one (highly bizarre) win. In that same time period, Dane’s team had over 20. And Dane was only just getting warmed up.
So, what’s the difference? It’s simple really. Gore was a (mostly) successful businessman. For Dane, racing was his business. Remember how I said to be successful in motor racing you’ve got to know the business inside and out and properly invest in it? That’s what Dane did. When he purchased the Briggs Motorsport team mid-03, he ran it as it was for the rest of the year and just quietly observed all around him. But for the start of 2004, Triple Eight had new cars. And they basically wrote all of 2004 off as one big test session. They designed and tested new parts to the point of destruction. Their ’04 season honestly was as bad as WPS’s. But by the end of the year, they had started to improve and scored a couple of top 5’s.
For ’05, Dane hired Craig Lowndes (for Americans think of him as Australia’s answer to Dale Earnhardt-the peoples champion, loved by race fans but also a ruthless race-winning animal of a driver). Dane then said to his team “I’ve got you a race-winning driver. Do you have a race-winning car to give him?” Suddenly Triple Eight started winning races. Dane then hired another driver called Jamie Whincup. And then they started winning more races. And then after 2007, came drivers and teams’ championships, multiple Bathurst 1000’s, blue-chip sponsors came on board, other teams started buying parts and cars off them rather than build their own and now, 20 years later? Take a guess at which team is the benchmark in the Supercars Championship.
At the same time, Gore still had the two second-hand cars he purchased in late ’03. He didn’t build up much of anything really. As far as drivers went, he didn’t get a top-line elite driver. He was asking drivers who were reasonable but not elite to drive second-hand cars with minimal upgrades and be successful. You don’t need to be an expert to know how that’s going to work out.
After the scathing attacks though, Gore went silent. It turned out that he had been involved in a helicopter accident were a sudden loss in altitude cause inner ear damage. On the advice of his doctor, he had to stay away from sustained loud noises and racing cars make a lot of noise. Wilson and Bargwanna ultimately finished the ’07 season 17th and 18th. A couple of top 10 finishes the only thing to write home about. On the other side of the Pacific, Champ Car was winding down and getting ready to merge into the rival IRL series to form IndyCar.
Suddenly Gore found himself at a crossroads. He couldn’t really be directly involved anymore. It was time to exit stage left. But even leaving, he pissed people off…
2008
At the pre-season test for the V8 Supercars just two weeks before the first round, Jason Bargwanna was leaning forlornly on the pit wall watching the action. Gore had shut WPS Racing down, leaving his drivers out in the cold barely 3 weeks before the season kicked off. Across the Pacific, he pulled the plug on the Team Australia deal with Walker Racing (casually ignoring a contract) and transferred his funding (and Will Power) to another team, KV Racing for the newly merged IndyCar series. Walker Racing were not best pleased. The KV deal only lasted to the end of 2008 before Gore ceased all motorsport activities. And then all of Australian motorsport breathed a sigh of relief.
He was gone.
Since then, Gore has really gone downhill. He’s been bankrupted, charged with fraud and is currently sitting in a Queensland prison-and even there he got in trouble for attempting to run a business from behind bars-which if you’re incarcerated in Queensland is illegal. He was eligible for parole in October 2022 but as I write this, I haven’t found anything about him being released. Probably for good reason.
And to think that he once thought he could dominate Australian motorsport…

"So was everything about the 80s so... excessive?"
"It had its charm. Say Anything: Lloyd Dobler standing outside of a bedroom window with a boombox over his head, desperately trying to get back the girl of his dreams. Princess Bride: Wesley slays giant rats for love. Breakfast Club: One detention turns a bunch of outcasts into allies."
"So it was a decade of sentimental drivel as well."
"Well, I was going to say love, friendship, the possibility of anything happening. You would've loved it."
"And why is that?"
"Because as much as we both hate to admit it, we care about those things."
In the year 1864, in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, two brothers fall in love with the same playful, manipulative girl. While she keeps the both of them wrapped around her little finger, they quickly realize her dark secret. She is a monster of the night, a creature thought to be only legend, a vampire. But the brothers loved her regardless. And they were not the only ones who knew of her secret. When the humans of the town grew suspicious and concocted a plan to round up the vampires in their town and burn them all, the two brothers committed themselves to saving their love, and in fighting against the townspeople both lost their lives. The next morning, they woke up dead.
As both had been unknowingly consuming vampire blood for weeks, they were in a state of transition, becoming vampires themselves. One brother revelled in his newfound power, one brother feared it. The first brother became obsessed with his own bloodlusted, and forced his brother to drink the blood of a woman to complete his own transition, and would spend the next decades in revelry, enjoying all the luxuries his afterlife had to offer and leaving behind a trail of corpses. That brother's name was Stefan Salvatore.
It took Stefan nearly a century to overcome his greater demons. He remembers every face of every man and woman he ever killed, every child he left an orphan, and once he became comfortably in control of his bloodlust, he committed himself to putting the past behind him, becoming the kind of person who would never commit those atrocities again, and being the best man for the people he now wholeheartedly and without manipulation, truly loves.
For a thorough overview of everything vampires are capable of and vulnerable to, please check the composite vampire RT.
General Vampire Abilities

• If a vampire goes longer than a week without drinking any blood, human or animal, then they will mummify and freeze in place until they are eventually revived.
  
• If a human ingests a vampire's blood their healing accelerates and they can heal from serious wounds quickly.
  
• When a vampire makes eye contact with a human, they can compel the person to do or think whatever they're told.
  
• Vampires have the innate ability to turn off their emotions and "humanity".
  
• Vampires burn and wither when exposed to sunlight.
  
• If a vampire is pierced through the heart with a wooden stake, or any sharpened wood, they are instantly killed.
  
• When a vampire touches vervain, it burns their skin.
  
  • When a human is touching vervain they are made immune to a vampire's persuasion.
• Vampires cannot enter a private home without being invited in first.
  

Strength
Biting

• [Weakened] Tears open the side of a deer with his teeth.
  
• Feeds on a woman so hard that he separates her head from her neck.
  

Striking

• [Weakened] Rips a werewolf's heart out of his chest. It's hard to see but this is the standard way for vampires to kill werewolves.
  
• [Weakened] While drugged, sends a trunk door flying off the back of an SUV with a kick.
  
• Decapitates a hybrid with one swing of a handsaw.
  
• Punches straight through a sandbag.
  

Throwing

• [Half-Turned] Throws a man across the room into a wall hard enough for the impact to stab a broken cane into his chest.
  
• [Weakened] Throws wooden stakes hard enough to embed in a wall.
  
• Hurls Damon and sends him flying through the air.
  
• Tosses Caroline into the air hard enough to smash through a large table.
  
• Throws a weight hard enough that it bounces off two mens' chins.
  

Lifting

• [Weakened] Lifts a large float trailer that several high school football players couldn't budge.
  
• Swings Enzo bodily into a mirror hard enough to smash it.
  

Pushing/Pulling

• [Weakened] Breaks a stake out of a wooden chair.
  
• Breaks another vampire's back, knocking him out temporarily.
  
• Rips a pipe off the wall and breaks open a door with it.
  
• Bends a metal poker around a door handle.
  
• Quickly moves a large ice machine.
  
• Rips a car door off while underwater.
  
• Rips the lock off of a personal safe.
  

Tackling

• [Weakened] Throws himself across the room hard enough to smash a shelf and some glass.
  
• [Weakened] Tackles Damon to send both flying several meters through a window.
  

Other

• [Weakened] Snaps a padlock.
  
• Sends Enzo flying hard enough to shatter a windshield and heavily warp the car's frame.
  

Speed
Reaction Time

• [Weakened] Catches a punch in a fraction of the time it takes to throw.
  
• [Weakened] Catches a stake fired from an airsoft gun.
  
  • [Weakened] Catches stakes fired from a crossbow.
• Pulls Rebekah out of the way of a spear trap.
  

Action Speed

• [Weakened] Goes from face down to face up in a moment.
  
• [Weakened] Reacts to, turns around, and catches a football in the time it took to fly a foot.
  
• Dresses in a flash.
  
• Snatches up a man and kills a man in the brief moment his buddy had his back turned.
  
• Blitzes and disarms two human attackers under compulsion.
  
• Slips out of a hug and grabs a person's arm in the time it takes for them to get an inch closer to stabbing him in the back.
  
• Grabs another vampire and gets to cover in the time it takes a door to open.
  

Movement Speed

• [Weakened] Casually outruns a human.
  
• [Weakened] Catches a rabbit mid-sprint.
  
• [Weakened] Appears and disappears while Elena has her back turned.
  
• [Weakened] Crosses a hallway at several times the speed of a normal human.
  
• [Weakened] Runs as fast as (a weakened) Damon, who throws a football across the field, then catches it before it hits the ground.
  
• [Weakened] He and Damon catch up to a car despite leaving on foot after it drove off.
  
• [Weakened] Blitzes a man from far enough away that he was hard to see through binoculars.
  
• Crosses a large room in under a second.
  
• Leaps high into the air from a sit inside a car and is gone before Damon can realize.
  
• Able to blitz around a foyer area to the point of being nearly imperceptable to other vampires, including an original.
  
• Grabs Jeremy and gets him to cover in the time it takes a pressure sensor to register that he's not standing on it anymore.
  

Agility

• Jumps to the roof of a multistory building.
  
  • Jumps up a story while carrying a person.
• Jumps to the top of a ferris wheel.
  

Durability
Blunt Force

• [Human] Gets blown back by a psychic explosion and recovers after a few seconds.
  
• [Weakened] No-sells a multi-story fall.
  
• [Weakened] No sells a punch to the gut from an in-shape football player.
  
• [Weakened] Gets bowled over by a werewolf jumping through a car windshield, and gets back up.
  
• [Weakened] Has the wind knocked out of him when he's thrown by Damon hard enough to fly several meters and hit a wooden gate and bounce off.
  
• Gets punched by Damon hard enough to fly back into a bookshelf and smash it.
  
• Gets blasted back hard enough to dent a car and isn't majorly fazed.
  
• Is inside a car as it tumbles hard enough to become completely demolished and comes out winded but unhurt.
  

Pain Tolerance

• [Weakened] Stays conscious through being stabbed twice with a wooden stake, while being physically weakened and needing blood to drink.
  
• [Weakened] Gets stabbed through the gut with a metal pike and seems over it moments later.
  
• [Weakened] It takes multiple wooden bullets to make him fall down.
  
• Gets shot several times through the chest and is quickly back on his feet and fighting.
  
• Gets shot from close range with a shotgun and is on the ground in pain but still conscious. It's possible that his reaction was only so severe because the buckshot was wood.
  
• Fights off Enzo with a knife in his throat.
  

Regeneration

• When he was first transformed he healed off what were otherwise lethal bullet wounds.
  
• Pulls a broken finger back into place without issue.
  
• Heals a gash in his hand in seconds.
  
• Gets stabbed in the gut, and fully heals a second later.
  
• Has his neck broken multiple times in an afternoon. While this knocks him out every time, it had to be continuously applied to keep him down and he recovered every time it happened.
  

Limits

• Gets knocked out having his head smashed into a car window hard enough to spider-web it.

Skill

• Dodges and clotheslines a charging vampire.
  
• Accurately hits a man down a well in the head with a thrown rock.
  

Vampire Abilities

• Is able to "get inside the head" of Caroline (who had been drained and weakened) through physical contact, giving her visions and memories that she has trouble discerning from reality.
  
  • Does the same to Damon, who was not weakened.

Compulsion

• Able to get into a school by compelling the clerk to let him in despite not having documentation.
  
• Rewrites a vampire bite victim's memories of the attack. Though the memory did resurface due to Stefan's decision to not drink human blood.
  
• Compels a bar full of people so that no one will intervene as he and Klaus shake down a werewolf to the point that he has the werewolf tied to a wall and tortured with poisoned darts and nobody notices.
  
• Compelled a person to show complete disinterest in the subject of vampires for the rest of her life.
  
• A vampire is able to compel a "choice" into a person, where they take different actions depending on how they feel.
  

Senses
Hearing

• [Weakened] Picks up several individual conversations happening around a loud party.
  
• [Weakened] Hears hushed talking several blocks away and several stories up.
  
• Hears a conversation happening in a house from across the street.
  
• Hears small pebbles being shifted from outside the house.
  
• Hears a person's heartbeat from across a gymnasium.
  
• Hears a person breathing from outside the door.
  

Smells

• Smells blood from across a fairground.
  
• Smells a body beginning to decompose from outside the house and a floor down.
  

Other

• Carries a Daylight Ring to protect him from burning in sunlight.
  
• Stefan has an unusually volatile reaction to drinking blood and exhibits addiction-like side effects without going through weeks of detox.
  
  • He eventually was able to temper his tolerance to blood through microdosing, though drinking too much can still trigger his addiction.
  • If he drinks too much at once, he enters his ripper personality. A form where he blacks out and literally rips his target apart. Usually, if given the time, when he comes to he'll regret the action and try and put the body back together.
• Was briefly under contract with Arcadia, aka The Devil.
  
  • During this time even normal means of killing vampires would not kill him permanently.
• Good at remembering the dates when things happened, mostly things from his lifetime.
  
  • Remembers the birthday of his ex from 100 years ago.
• Good at darts.
  
• Good at quarters.
  
• Attended Harvard in the 70s.
  

Top 10 Most Important Roads In Indy

1. Sam Jones Expwy/Raymond St. East/West running road spanning city. Main and (practically only) east/west thoroughfare through south half of city. Freeway on west and central portions. Interchanges/exchanges with: I-465, I-70, I-65, (also very close to I-465/I-74 interchange), #3, #5, #6, Emerson, Shadeland, Kentucky Major destinations: Airport, main industrial sector
   
2. 56th St/Kessler Blvd (east-west) East-west running road spanning city from Eagle Creek/Brownsburg to Lawrence. Intersections/interchanges with: I-465(x2) #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, Shadeland, Ronald Reagan Pkwy, Major Destinations: Glendale Mall, Fort Harrison, also close to Broad Ripple Village
   
3. 82nd/86th St. East/West running road spanning city on north side just inside I-465. Interchanges/intersections: I-465, I-69/#7, #2, #3, #5, #6, Allisonville, Shadeland Major destinations: Castleton Square Mall, Keystone Fashion Mall
   
4. Fall Creek Pkwy/Binford Blvd Winding northeast-southwest oriented parkway 2-3 lanes for its entirety with a middle lane changing direction based on time of day, running from north of Downtown to I-465 where it becomes I-69. Intersections/interchanges with: I-465, I-69, #2, #3, #4, #5, #8, #9, 30th, (sort of) Shadeland Majors destinations: Indiana State Fairgrounds, Castleton Square Mall, Ivy Tech
   
5. Lafayette Rd./White River Pkwy/Harding St. Runs NW-SE from Eagle Creek to Near West Side near Downtown. From there runs north-south to I-465 where it becomes SR 37/I-69. Interchanges/intersections with: I-65, I-70, I-465, I-69, #1, #4, #8, #9, #10, 30th, 16th, 10th Major Destinations: Lafayette Square Mall, Zoo, Also close to IMS, IUPUI, Riley/Eskenazi/VA Hospitals, Downtown
   
6. Keystone Av/Rural St North-south running road spanning city from Southport through Near East Side to Carmel and Westfield Major intersections/interchanges: I-465, I-65, I-70, #1, #2, #4, #7, #8, #9, 96th, 30th, 16th, 10th Major Destinations: Indiana State Fairgrounds, Keystone Fashion Mall, Glendale Mall
   
7. 38th St. East-west oriented road spanning city from Clermont to Far East Side Intersections/interchanges include: I-465, I-65 (overlaps for about a mile), #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, Emerson, Shadeland Major Destinations: Lafayette Square Mall, Indiana State Fairgrounds, Crown Hill Cemetery, IMA Soon to have Purple Line BRT Line
   
8. Bluff Rd./West St./Dr MLK Jr St/Michigan Rd. NNW/SSE-oriented road spanning entirety of city. 2-3+ lanes for most of its span except on south side. Intersections/interchanges with I-465, I-70, I-65 (x2), #1, #4, #8, #9, 10th, 16th, 30th, 96th Major Destinations: downtown, IMA, Crown Hill, IUPUI also close to Riley/Eskenazi/VA Hospitals
   
9. East St./Madison Av/Meridian St. Major north-south thoroughfare running through center of city from Westfield and Carmel through Downtown down to Greenwood Intersections/Interchanges with I-465 (x2), I-70, I-65, #1, #4, #7, #8, #9, 10th, 16th, 30th, 96th Stretches of freeway south of downtown and outside 465 on north side. Major Destinations: Greenwood Park Mall, Broad Ripple, Downtown, Ivy Tech, Children’s Museum, Broad Ripple Includes Red Line BRT line for large stretches
   

Honorable Mentions:
Shadeland Av Emerson Av 96th St 30th St. 16th 10th St.

1. Washington St. Main east-west thoroughfare running through center of city from Plainfield through Downtown to Cumberland Intersections/exchanges with I-465 (x2), I-70/65, #2, #3, #5, #6, Shadeland, Emerson, Harding, Holt Major Destinations: Downtown, Zoo, Airport, Perry Crossing Mall, Irvington, Washington Square Mall Soon to have Blue Line BRT Line

Notes:
A. All 10 of these roads cross the White River, except Fall Creek Pkwy. Outside of Downtown and interstates, there are only 12 places to cross the White River in Indy. So this top 10 list features 8 of those 12 such crossings. The other 4 are Westfield Blvd., 16th St., 30th St., and College Ave.
B. This list does NOT include interstate highways.

Hey folks, I'm trying to plan a quick overnighter to new glarus state park and hoping someone has a good route or can at least help fine-tuning mine.
I will be biking from schaumburg to Arlington heights metra to get to Harvard (RIP arlington park metra on account of they closed the gate for cutting through the racetrack)
My big question I guess is what is going on with the badger trail north of monroe? On google street view it looks like it is closed but the wisconsion official map still routes you through it.
Talking about north of here specifically
Here's the route I'm planning assuming that section is closed
My route is optimized for trail usage and less so for minimal distance. I need to get my distance back up to prepare for Ride Across Wisconsin anyway! please suggest any optimizations!
Other question... This is a holiday weekend so doing a reservation is impossible, are the staff usually pretty "chill" about Wisconsion's no-turn-away bike camping policy? Every time I've thought I'd have to use it at Bong they actually had sites available... not sure if I should rely too heavily on it. Thanks for your time!

Around Town:

• Murder on the Orient Express (Guthrie Theater - All Weekend)
• It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity (Dudley Riggs Theatre - All Weekend)
• An American Tail: The Musical (Children's Theatre Company - All Weekend)
• First Lady Suite (Elision Playhouse - All Weekend)
• Our Town (Open Window Theatre - All Weekend)
• The Prom (Chanassen Dinner Theatre - All Weekend)
• Ain't Misbehavin' (Capri Theater - All Weekend)
• W;t (Theater In the Round - All Weekend)
• Kickoff to Summer (Minnesota State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• AniMinneapolis (Hyatt Regency - All Weekend)
• Art for a Cause: Stephanie Dillon + Justin Hammer Art Sale (West End - Fri & Sat)
• Alex Velluto (Laugh Camp Comedy Club - Fri & Sat)
• Nate Craig (ACME Comedy Club - Fri & Sat)
• Minnesota Songkran Festival (State Capitol - Sat & Sun)
• One Family Fest (Kingston Park - Sat & Sun)
• Caterwaul (Palmer's Bar - Sat & Sun)

Friday

• John Swards (Utepils 7pm)
• Kate Malanaphy (7th Street Entry 8pm)
• Desperate Electric, Vinny Franco, Beneath Green, and ELOUR (Fine Line 8pm)
• Royal Bliss (Fine Line 8pm)
• Dave’s Manual, Kylie Nova, The Owl-Eyes (331 10pm)
• Luke Callen, The Foxgloves, Long Mama and Wolf Van Elfmand (Palmer's Bar 6pm)
• Lovejoy (First Avenue 7pm)

Saturday

• Rise & Remember Festival (George Floyd Square 1-9pm)
• Watsky (First Avenue 6pm)
• Backyard Boombox One Year Anniversary Party (Falling Knife Brewing 1pm)
• The Alpha Car Show and Pop Up Market (200 E Lyndale 4-8pm)
• Lady Midnight (Green Room 7pm)
• Twin City Spring Music fest (Phoenix Theater 4-10pm)
• GRRRL SCOUT: SNAX (Icehosue 9pm)
• Stillwater 5K/10K/Half Marathon (Stillwater 8am)
• Intro to D&D (Level Up Games 2:30-6:30pm)
• 5K Milk Run (Minnesota State Fairgrounds 8am)
• Oedipus in Seattle (Bryant Lake Bowl 3pm)
• Helloweed (The Fillmore 7pm)
• Leisure World Block Party — Cool Trash (Leisure World Vintage 12-6pm)
• The Pickle Ball – An Outdoor Tea Dance (Eagle Bar 1-5pm)
• Bad Decisions (7th Street Entry 9pm)
• Justice for George: Breaking Barriers Building Bonds (Squirrel Haus Arts 5-9pm)
• Kat Dahlia (Fine Line 7:30pm)
• 2nd Annual Reggae Summer Splash (Hook & Ladder 7pm)
• The Riffin' Trio and Hemma (Turf Club 6pm)
• Dungeons & Dickheads: The Vilification Tennis RPG (Strike Theater 9:30pm)

Sunday

• Elder (Fine Line 7pm)
• The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience (Dakota Jazz Club 7pm)
• AK Fields (7th Street Entry 7pm)
• Conway the Machines (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 7pm)
• Immigrant for a Day (Gammelgården Museum of Scandia 10-4pm)
• Vietnamese Show (Grand Casino Hinckley 7pm)

Sports

• Toronto AT Twins (All Weekend)
• Omaha AT Saints (All Weekend)
• Salt Lake AT Loons (Saturday 7:30pm)
• Vegas VS Lynx (Sunday 9pm)

I have had suggestions for a patreon or something of the sort in the past. I do this because I like to provide whatever tiny help I can to the community. BUT I also like to raise money for Gillette's Children Hospital every year. So if you have some virtual loose change you can help me help dem kids here: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/482633

Links

• Reddit - Twin Cities Social meet-ups - https://www.reddit.com/twincitiessocial/
• Minneapolis Park Events - https://www.minneapolisparks.org/event-calenda
• Secrets of the city - http://www.secretsofthecity.com/
• MPLS Art Events - https://www.mplsart.com/calendaupcoming
• Minnesota Monthly Event Calendar - http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/Calenda
• MSP Magazine Event Calendar - http://mspmag.com/search/event/events-calenda#page=1
• Minneapolis Northwest Event Calendar - https://www.minneapolisnorthwest.com/events/
• Minneapolis.Org Event Calendar - https://www.minneapolis.org/calenda
• Family Fun Twin Cities - https://www.familyfuntwincities.com/family-fun-events-calenda
• Racket MN Event Calendar - https://racketmn.com/category/events/

Be da real MVP and add anything I missed below.

Around Town:

• Murder on the Orient Express (Guthrie Theater - All Weekend)
• It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity (Dudley Riggs Theatre - All Weekend)
• An American Tail: The Musical (Children's Theatre Company - All Weekend)
• First Lady Suite (Elision Playhouse - All Weekend)
• Our Town (Open Window Theatre - All Weekend)
• The Prom (Chanassen Dinner Theatre - All Weekend)
• Ain't Misbehavin' (Capri Theater - All Weekend)
• W;t (Theater In the Round - All Weekend)
• Kickoff to Summer (Minnesota State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• AniMinneapolis (Hyatt Regency - All Weekend)
• Art for a Cause: Stephanie Dillon + Justin Hammer Art Sale (West End - Fri & Sat)
• Alex Velluto (Laugh Camp Comedy Club - Fri & Sat)
• Nate Craig (ACME Comedy Club - Fri & Sat)
• Minnesota Songkran Festival (State Capitol - Sat & Sun)
• One Family Fest (Kingston Park - Sat & Sun)
• Caterwaul (Palmer's Bar - Sat & Sun)

Friday

• John Swards (Utepils 7pm)
• Kate Malanaphy (7th Street Entry 8pm)
• Desperate Electric, Vinny Franco, Beneath Green, and ELOUR (Fine Line 8pm)
• Royal Bliss (Fine Line 8pm)
• Dave’s Manual, Kylie Nova, The Owl-Eyes (331 10pm)
• Luke Callen, The Foxgloves, Long Mama and Wolf Van Elfmand (Palmer's Bar 6pm)
• Lovejoy (First Avenue 7pm)

Saturday

• Rise & Remember Festival (George Floyd Square 1-9pm)
• Watsky (First Avenue 6pm)
• Backyard Boombox One Year Anniversary Party (Falling Knife Brewing 1pm)
• The Alpha Car Show and Pop Up Market (200 E Lyndale 4-8pm)
• Lady Midnight (Green Room 7pm)
• Twin City Spring Music fest (Phoenix Theater 4-10pm)
• GRRRL SCOUT: SNAX (Icehosue 9pm)
• Stillwater 5K/10K/Half Marathon (Stillwater 8am)
• Intro to D&D (Level Up Games 2:30-6:30pm)
• 5K Milk Run (Minnesota State Fairgrounds 8am)
• Oedipus in Seattle (Bryant Lake Bowl 3pm)
• Helloweed (The Fillmore 7pm)
• Leisure World Block Party — Cool Trash (Leisure World Vintage 12-6pm)
• The Pickle Ball – An Outdoor Tea Dance (Eagle Bar 1-5pm)
• Bad Decisions (7th Street Entry 9pm)
• Justice for George: Breaking Barriers Building Bonds (Squirrel Haus Arts 5-9pm)
• Kat Dahlia (Fine Line 7:30pm)
• 2nd Annual Reggae Summer Splash (Hook & Ladder 7pm)
• The Riffin' Trio and Hemma (Turf Club 6pm)
• Dungeons & Dickheads: The Vilification Tennis RPG (Strike Theater 9:30pm)

Sunday

• Elder (Fine Line 7pm)
• The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience (Dakota Jazz Club 7pm)
• AK Fields (7th Street Entry 7pm)
• Conway the Machines (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 7pm)
• Immigrant for a Day (Gammelgården Museum of Scandia 10-4pm)
• Vietnamese Show (Grand Casino Hinckley 7pm)

Sports

• Toronto AT Twins (All Weekend)
• Omaha AT Saints (All Weekend)
• Salt Lake AT Loons (Saturday 7:30pm)
• Vegas VS Lynx (Sunday 9pm)

I have had suggestions for a patreon or something of the sort in the past. I do this because I like to provide whatever tiny help I can to the community. BUT I also like to raise money for Gillette's Children Hospital every year. So if you have some virtual loose change you can help me help dem kids here: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/482633

Links

• Reddit - Twin Cities Social meet-ups - https://www.reddit.com/twincitiessocial/
• Minneapolis Park Events - https://www.minneapolisparks.org/event-calenda
• Secrets of the city - http://www.secretsofthecity.com/
• MPLS Art Events - https://www.mplsart.com/calendaupcoming
• Minnesota Monthly Event Calendar - http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/Calenda
• MSP Magazine Event Calendar - http://mspmag.com/search/event/events-calenda#page=1
• Minneapolis Northwest Event Calendar - https://www.minneapolisnorthwest.com/events/
• Minneapolis.Org Event Calendar - https://www.minneapolis.org/calenda
• Family Fun Twin Cities - https://www.familyfuntwincities.com/family-fun-events-calenda
• Racket MN Event Calendar - https://racketmn.com/category/events/

Be da real MVP and add anything I missed below.

As title states, we are looking for stroller suggestions that would be most fitting for a really tall parent and a somewhat short parent. Daddy is 6'6 and mom is 5'4. LO is 14 mo and it's time to retire the caddy and step into the world of strollers. We've tried out other couple's strollers to see how we liked them but they are all too low for dad to use without him hunched over the whole time.
We are looking for something more than just an umbrella stroller (which we found was the worst as far as height adjustments) but also didn't find the need for many bells and whistles, like snack trays, that some of the strollers that we tried had with them. We'd also like to stay within the realm of "compact" with an easy in/easy out (loading, unloading, etc) design with the ability to traverse nothing more than parks and fairgrounds. However, we are open to all suggestions! Thank you in advance for any and all help!

FRIDAY

• Got to Be NC Festival, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh
• Durham Bulls vs. Nashville, DBAP, Durham
• Get the Led Out, DPAC, Durham
• Carolina Ballet presents Sleeping Beauty, Memorial Auditorium at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh
• Third Friday, Downtown, Durham
• Brad Williams, Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• 'We the Roses' Music & Art Festival, The House of Art, Raleigh
• Cary Night Market, Old Library Site, Cary
• The Cary Town Band, Cary Arts Center, Cary
• Comedy Night with Bo Johnson and Jen O'Neill Smith, The Cary Theater, Cary
• MOSTLEY CRUE – A TRIBUTE TO MOTLEY CRUE W/ FLYING HIGH AGAIN / VOODOO, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
• Hippie Sabotage - The Trailblazer Tour, The Ritz, Raleigh
• Southern Documentary Convening, American Underground, Durham
• NCAA Division 1 Regional Softball Tournament, Duke Softball Stadium, Durham
• NCHSSA Lacrosse State Championships, Durham County Memorial Stadium, Durham
• Conscious Cosmos Festival, Durham Central Park, Durham
• Liberty Arts 3rd Friday: Indigo Dyed Scarf Make-&-Take PLUS Amy Wetsch “AMALGAMATION”, Liberty Arts – Artist Studios and Foundry, Durham
• Retro Film Series - The Uninvited & Night of the Hunter, Carolina Theatre, Durham
• Kinetic Audio Presents: Abyss, The Fruit, Durham
• NC State Baseball vs. Pitt, Doak Field at Dail Park, Raleigh
• Sidney Gantt, Room 861 at Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Maz Jobrani, Raleigh Improv, Cary

​
SATURDAY

• Third Round: Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes, PNC Arena, Raleigh
• Artsplosure - The Raleigh Arts Festival, Downtown, Raleigh
• Got to Be NC Festival, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh
• Durham Blues and Brews Festival, Durham Central Park, Durham
• Durham Bulls vs. Nashville, DBAP, Durham
• NC Courage vs. Angel City, WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary
• John Mellencamp, DPAC, Durham
• Brad Williams, Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Carolina Ballet presents Sleeping Beauty, Memorial Auditorium at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh
• Durham Ballet Theatre Presents Enchanted Stories, Carolina Theatre, Durham
• 10th Annual Wheels on Academy Car Show, Old Library Site, Cary
• Saturdaze — Treee City, Boxyard RTP, Durham
• Rissi Palmer, Cary Arts Center, Cary
• Jambalaya Soul Slam Meeting at the Crossroads: Ode to the Ancestors Poetry Slam, Hayti Heritage Center, Durham
• Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz/Ariel Pocock, Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham
• Comedy on Broad Presents - No Bull, Moon Dog Meadery, Durham
• Ballyhoo! with The Harbor Boys, Motorco Music Hall, Durham
• Detroit-Durham Connection: John Collins (Ur), the fruit, Durham
• Pouya, The Ritz, Raleigh
• Start Making Sense, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
• The Veldt, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh
• Learning to Listen – Communal Improv Workshop, Raleigh Municipal Rose Garden, Raleigh
• Live at the Springs featuring David Nail, Ting Park, Holly Springs
• Girls on the Run BEE Amazing Spring 23 Celebratory 5K, Research Commons at Research Triangle Park, Durham
• CreativeMornings RDU: Teachers on Creativity in Education, Boxyard RTP, Durham
• Artistry with Stone: Pathways, Patios, Boulders & Beyond, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham
• Preservation Durham Annual Home Tour: Then & Now, Part II, People's Bank, Durham
• Bike the Ellerbe Creek Preserves, CCB Plaza, Durham
• PEN Write Now: Your South, Our South, Rofhiwa Book Cafe, Durham
• Hands on History: May Day, Fred Fletcher Park, Raleigh
• 4th Annual Family Fun Day (NC Haitian Flag Day), Rotary Shelter, Cary
• 6th Annual Victory Ride to Cure Cancer, Knightdale Station Park, Knightdale
• America 250: The People of North Carolina in the American Revolution, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh
• NCAA Division 1 Regional Softball Tournament, Duke Softball Stadium, Durham
• NCHSSA Lacrosse State Championships, Durham County Memorial Stadium, Durham
• Darkness Rising Live 6!, Moore Square, Raleigh
• Sidney Gantt, Room 861 at Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh
• Maz Jobrani, Raleigh Improv, Cary
• NC State Baseball vs. Pitt, Doak Field at Dail Park, Raleigh

​
SUNDAY

• Artsplosure - The Raleigh Arts Festival, Downtown, Raleigh
• Got to Be NC Festival, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh
• Durham Bulls vs. Nashville, DBAP, Durham
• Carolina Ballet presents Sleeping Beauty, Memorial Auditorium at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh
• Brier Creek Food Truck Festival, Behind Brier Creek Commons, Raleigh
• Merz Piano Trio, NCMA, Raleigh
• Spyro Gyra, Carolina Theatre, Durham
• EnoFest & Motorco Presents The Gibson Brothers, Motorco Music Hall, Durham
• Bullet for My Valentine, The Ritz, Raleigh
• Frosé All Day Party, Vita Vite, Raleigh
• The Choral Society of Durham: Bach's Mass in B minor, Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University East Campus, Durham
• Rap & Wrestling, Hi-Wire Brewing, Durham
• DPW Wrestling — No Pressure, Durham Convention Center, Durham
• NCAA Division 1 Regional Softball Tournament, Duke Softball Stadium, Durham
• Preservation Durham Annual Home Tour: Then & Now, Part II, People's Bank, Durham
• Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch, Alley Twenty Six, Durham
• Common Roots: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration, Durham Central Park, Durham
• Bitten Bakery Rooftop Pop Up, The Willard Rooftop Lounge, Raleigh
• Boygirl Rising w/ A Day Without Love, Rumbletramp, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh

​
Join the Thingstodo919 email list here for a weekly events newsletter. Doing anything interesting this weekend? Let us know your plans in the comments!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SlTLhJWyN_bGZY5XW3I3aRugNnPggA8dRY5Wxe-qYY4/edit?usp=sharing
Link is above.
I built this for myself and I do mostly offline simming stuff nowadays since I just don't have time to really engage and race now that I have kids.
That said, it can be edited to work for someone who is racing.
I modeled it after the career of an asphalt racer but again, you can edit any of the series.
Here is how it works. In order to move up in a series you need to meet the Popularity and the Monetary requirements. I know Nascar is largely team based now but its built for a game that wasn't completely that way 20 years ago.
So what I did is find points and payout for a local racetrack and use Race Points Manager to manage the first couple years of my career. That's the framework for how I got to payouts and the costs of everything. I started with how little payouts were for Hobby Stock and Street Stock. Ultimately you can make up whatever you want but if you mess up formulas it is going to mess up the sheet.
Driver rating upgrade points are related to points you earn so in lower series when points given are low it is 100%. When you move to the higher series it is only a fraction. When you enter the truck series you drop a tier on driver ratings.
Car upgrades are done by tiers and by money.
The other piece is the Partial Offers. Based on your popularity you can get a partial season offer. Random payout that will change as you navigate the sheet, and random amount of races too. House rule you are only to take one partial offer per series per year.
So in the current state:
I have simmed 2 seasons in Street Stock. Example, I am almost popular enough to enter the local weekly Modifieds but I don't have enough money to buy a car. It would pay off for me to stay in SS longer so the car I get would be above a Tier 4.
Anyway, so like the title says. I'd love to get some input, if anyone wants to give it a run. Let me know how it goes.