#nor am i tagging the motorsport

[fastandfictionalmen]

back again for god knows which time....

I’ve decided to come back to tumblr to post some of my fun daydreams or what if scenarios that I’ve written down over the years in what my attempts were at being creative and keeping up a hobby. And I figure if anyone else wants to enjoy it - it's nice to share. And if I find a community along the way I wont complain.

From my side - it’s not too deep. I see stuff in my life, hear a song, see a scene in a movie, think of a what if scenario, get caught up in daydreaming in traffic or have discussions with other fanfic writers, sometimes I even get requests…. and I come up with fun little snippets that include real or functional people depending on my mood. And sometimes I choose to write those down. And that’s what you’ll be reading here.

I mean no harm to any of the real people, do not know them, have never even met them and I will forever stay anonymous to them admiring from afar, nor do I mean any harm via any copyright infringement to the fictional characters who I’ll take and make them act how I want them to act. I write mostly about the men in motorsports as I am a huge fan of both formula 1 and motogp. I have a slight bias towards Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in F1 and Fabio Quartararo in motogp so be warned they will star in the fics more often than others. And the fictional men I write about will mostly be from Harry Potter (you really can never get rid of your first hyperfixation as a kid), ACOTAR series (my latest read I enjoyed), Bones, The Vampire Diaries (shows I am obsessed with) and some others depending on my current feelings / mood / obsession. As for how I write all my fics will have a label on the top with some of the key info about the fics like ratings, pairings, category of fic, word count etc. so do not worry they will easily be identifiable. And after a while, and after I’ve posted a bunch of both requests and fics I’ve written but never shown to anyone I might take new requests, as those always challenge me to be more creative.

Ps about me: feel free to call me Syd (short for Sydney), I’m a girl and I am above 21 so be careful in interacting with my page - I mean no harm to anyone, I always try to tag my fics properly but being an adult means I do swear, use explicit language and generally talk about mature topics so there is a high chance you’ll find those here and from my own experience I know it's better to not be exposed to some things too soon. I’ll do my best to be a good online auntie but if you come across my page and are in a very young age bracket - you’ve been cautioned.

[nco05]

Just wanna send a reminder into the world Max battled with 7 different drivers wheel-to-wheel this season, today alone 4 different people. No one has been crashed out because of him 😇

[vierschanzentournee]

Tumblr’s Favourite F2 Drivers!

Votes have been cast, counted and recounted (and recounted again because arithmetic is really hard and I’m sick), and the results are in! I’d just like to say a massive thanks to all 31 respondents (wait, 30, why am I thanking myself?), to everyone who reblogged the link, and to Jenny (@danytorpedokvyat) for the inspiration! I’m going to tag everyone who left a URL, just in case anyone’s been sitting up at night waiting for the results lmao, so brace yourselves:

@charlesleclerc @lucasdigrassis @curbstones-and-cowboyboots @rararaenbow @redbullricciardo @aroncant @harlot-of-babylon (it won’t let me tag you properly?) @racingamy @ladyrindt @emilia-jade @kingbottas @danytorpedokvyat @pushandrush (sorry, I don’t think yours will work either! I’m awful at tumblr) @tyretracks-andbrokenhearts @livinglegendsimplythebest @aaronoxladewilshere @onlyailisha @bozplz (what am i missing how does tumblr work) @destroyingdestroyers @danyandcarlos @f1-stereo

(whew!)

Now, onto what we all want: the results, which will be under the cut!

Tumblr’s Favourite F2 Drivers

Watching the votes come in was pretty wild - there were moments where certain drivers looked set to beat others, and then the tides would turn and someone who was wildly popular a day or two ago was suddenly completely absent from votes, or even receiving votes for least favourite! The points system worked like so: a vote for ‘favourite driver’ was worth 5 points, ‘2nd favourite’ 4 points, ‘3rd favourite’ was worth 3, ‘4th favourite’ 2 points, and ‘5th favourite’ paying just 1 point. An ‘honourable mention’ wasn’t worth anything (other than pride), and a vote for ‘least favourite’ didn’t subtract any points either. So, how did Tumblr vote for their favourite F2 drivers?

In 3rd place... Nyck de Vries (42 points)

I’ll admit, this one was a bit of a surprise to me! With 3 votes for favourite, the Dutch driver was the 3rd most popular choice for favourite (are you sure that’s enough threes, Nyck?) and his points haul gave a significant boost to his new team, Racing Engineering in the team rankings.

In 2nd place… Artem Markelov (78 points)

Everyone’s favourite soft Russian (or, at least, my favourite soft Russian) takes a strong second place, with a 36 point margin over de Vries. He was the second most popular choice for favourite, with 19.4% of votes for favourite!

And our winner is… Charles Leclerc (119 points)

I mean, we all knew this was coming. The golden boy of Tumblr, the hot property in motorsport, it seems that Leclerc just doesn’t know how to lose. But he didn’t just not lose - he absolutely destroyed his opponents, winning by a margin of 41 points over second-placed Markelov. He took 18 votes for favourite (58.1%!)

Let’s spare a moment to think about those poor souls who received zero points-scoring votes: Sergio Canamasas, Nabil Jeffri, and Stefano Coletti. The full standings are as follows: Charles Leclerc (119), Artem Markelov (78), Nyck de Vries (42), Oliver Rowland (32), Antonio Fuoco (25), Sean Gelael (23), Luca Ghiotto (17), Nicholas Latifi (14), Sérgio Sette Câmara, Roberto Merhi, Callum Ilott (13), Norman Nato, Alexander Albon (9), Ralph Boschung (8), Jordan King, Gustav Malja, Louis Delétraz (6), Raffaele Marciello, Sergey Sirotkin, Santino Ferrucci (5), Johnny Cecotto Jr (4), Nobuharu Matsushita (2), Robert Vișoiu (1), Sergio Canamasas, Nabil Jeffri, and Stefano Coletti (0).

Tumblr’s Least Favourite F2 Drivers

There were some surprises in here, but some results were pretty inevitable! We only had 25 responses here, as it was an optional question.

In 3rd place… a tie between: Johnny Cecotto Jr, Nobuharu Matsushita, and Raffaele Marciello (2 votes each)

I can understand Cecotto’s place here, with his reputation for fast but erratic driving, but Matsushita and Marciello are beyond me!

In 2nd place… Oliver Rowland (4 votes)

Oh, Ollie, the marmite of the F2 world. (Apparently) far less popular this year than last, it might have something to do with his threat to Charles Leclerc (who we’ve established is the favourite by a mile) and his championship?

And our winner (loser?) is… Sergio Canamasas (6 votes)

Could we really expect any different? The impulsive, aggressive Spanish driver has spent the past 6 years forcing everyone’s favourites off the track through his ‘robust’ defence, and although he could be said to have been improving recently, it seems to be too little, too late for Canamasas!

There were several other choices for least favourite, each with 1 vote: Markelov, de Vries, Nato, King, Sette Câmara, Boschung, Sirotkin, Vișoiu, and Delétraz

Almost, but not quite

Some drivers did better in the honourable mentions than in the points:

In 3rd place… an eight way tie! Ghiotto, Latifi, de Vries, Malja, Sirotkin, Gelael, Delétraz, and Marciello (two votes each)

I’m not even going to try and go into detail about what’s going on here

In 2nd place… Nobuharu Matsushita (3 votes)

He certainly got more honourable mentions than points-paying votes, poor guy!

And our winner is… Sérgio Sette Câmara (5 votes)

Surprisingly popular in the honourable mentions category is one of our latest race winners, and youngest driver on the grid, 19-year-old Brazilian (@lucasdigrassis) Sérgio Sette Câmara.

The Team’s Championship

I added up the totals of each team’s drivers (each driver was counted for the team they drove for last, as of Monza - so de Vries counts for Racing Engineering, Merhi for Rapax, and Sirotkin for ART, for example)

Prema Racing - 144 points

Russian Time  - 95 points

DAMS - 49 points

Racing Engineering - 48 points

Pertamina Arden - 32 points

Rapax - 23 points

Trident - 23 points

MP Motorsport - 19 points

ART Grand Prix - 11 points

Campos Racing - 9 points

There’s some pretty large gaps at the top of the standings - no one could stand up to the might of Charles Leclerc’s points haul, and Russian Time can only manage to get within 49 points of Prema. It’s another leap from Russian Time to DAMS, home to Ollie Rowland, one of both the most and least popular drivers on the grid, and Nicholas Latifi, no one’s least favourite, but no one’s favourite either. Then, things get incredibly close. Nyck de Vries’ move to Racing Engineering hauls them up into fourth, just a point down on DAMS, and the popularity of Sean Gelael is a great help to Pertamina Arden. Rapax and Trident find themselves with the same number of points - possibly something to do with the sheer number of drivers Trident has had this season. MP Motorsport, ART Grand Prix and Campos Racing round out the standings, and I know they’re dead last but I love my Campos boys anyway.

Demographics

I’m well aware that Tumblr doesn’t represent the majority of F2 fans, nor does this survey even represent the majority of F2 fans on Tumblr - the demographics here were entirely optional, and mostly just for fun (because I’m horrendously nosey).

So, I noticed like a week after I published the survey that I messed up the age options, so I’ve taken 25-34 and 25-49 and combined them into 25+, and I’m very sorry for any confusion my tragic arithmetic skills have caused!

30 respondents of 31 left their age - of these, 15 (50%) were aged between 18 and 24, 11 (36.7%) were between 13 and 17, and 4 (13.3%) were 25 or older. No one was aged over 50 - we’re a pretty youthful fanbase!

The same 30 respondents also left their gender - and hey, who said racing was a man’s world! 29 (96.7%) of those who specified identified as female; the remaining 1 (3.3%) said ‘other’. Now, if we could just have a few non-male drivers…

Finally, nationality. I only got 25 responses here, and one of them was Bacon, so let’s say 24. Of these, 7 self-identified as British - 11 said they were British, or else said they were English or Northern Irish (I don’t want to just lump you in, because I know how annoying that can be!). 4 said they were Dutch, 2 said Hungarian, and there was 1 each for Argentine, Australian & German, Belgian, Finnish, Moldovan, American and Irish.

To sum up; F2 has a rather young, predominantly female, but very international fanbase!

Honestly, if you’ve made it to here through all my rubbishy, tired ramblings, well done, and thank you! If I’ve made any errors, if you’d like to see all the data or want me to analyse something else, or if you just wanna shout about F2 or whatever, just shoot me a message (I don’t bite, I’m way too desperate for friends!)

[toxinwing]

Hooray! More tag things to do! Thanks to @theianitor​ for keeping me busy.

Rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to know better.

Nicknames: Nick, Toxin, Poison, and...er, Red Bean Bun (long story). Gender: Transmale. Very Masculine. Totally. ...Yes, I have, like, eight or nine stuffed animals on my bed. What of it? They’re comfy. Star sign: Cancer the Crab. Obviously a hermit crab in my case. Height: Just about 5′5″.  Time right now: [Insert time here because it won’t be accurate when I fill it out the first time] Last thing I googled: Uh...North English accents, pictures of chickens, Swedish currency (neither I nor my dad could remember whether it was spelled with a ‘c’ or a ‘k’), and Peter Lorre. Assume what you will. Favorite bands: Gah, too many. R.E.M., Queen, Sublime, Collective Soul, Rusted Root, Rammstein, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Dropkick Murphys, Chumbawamba, Beastie Boys and Green Day. Just to name a few. Favorite solo artists: Arlo Guthrie, Stan Rogers, and Tom Lehrer. I’m probably forgetting some, but those were the first three to come to mind. Song stuck in my head: Rydeen by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Last movie I watched: Taxi Driver, I think. Last tv show I watched: Er, the news? I don’t watch that much TV. I might’ve turned on a science show last night to have on in the background, but I can’t remember what it was. When did you create your blog: Sometime in 2013. I can’t remember exactly when. There’s probably somewhere I can look that up... What stuff do you post: A bunch of F1 related stuff, drawings, tag things, and anything else that I want to post or reblog, really. When did your blog reach its peak: I’m not sure I’ve even reached a gently sloped hill yet, much less a peak. Do you have any other blogs: Nope. I lump all of my interests together into one big, messy katamari of a blog. Do you get asks regularly: No, not really. Maybe one every month or so. I do like answering random questions though! So long as they aren’t too personal or rude, it’s all good. Send anons and whatever. Why did you choose your url: It’s a version of an old username I’ve used in a few other places. My friends used to say I had an unhealthy interest in poisons and toxic substances. Following: 45 Posts: 614 Hogwarts house: ...No idea! Never got into Harry Potter. Pokemon team: As in my team of Pokemon or which team I’d be on?...I’ll take it as the second what with the popularity of Pokemon GO. In that case, Instinct. ‘Cause electricity is pretty cool. Favorite colors: Indigo, dark green, gold, and silver (metals count as colors, right? They kind of do in heraldry, so I’ll go with it). Average hours of sleep: I either get too much or too little sleep. Either I sleep for over 10 hours or less than 5. I’d say that probably averages out to 8 or 7 hours, right? See, I’m fine! Hahaha... Lucky numbers: 9. I don’t consider it "lucky", but I do like the number 9. Favorite characters: Solaire of Astora, Laurentius of the Great Swamp, and Marvelous Chester from Dark Souls, Creighton of Mirrah and Mild Mannered Pate from Dark Souls 2, Ostrava of Boletaria and Biorr of the Twin Fangs from Demon’s Souls, and the Doll, Eileen the Crow, and the chapel dweller from Bloodborne. (FromSoft, why you do this to me?) I could go on and name a bunch more characters from a bunch of other games and series, but this is already getting a bit too long for my tastes. Let’s just say I fall for am in love with like a whole lot of characters. What are you wearing right now: A black, long sleeve shirt, my a-size-or-two-too-big black hoodie, some green and red plaid pajama pants, and thick n’ fluffy back socks. How many blankets do you sleep with: One sheet, one comforter, and one blanket. Also two pillows and a pile of stuffed animals. Dream job: Something that I actually enjoy doing. I’m not too picky. Something involving motorsports would be cool (not driving though, that’d be a bit much for me). Also I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a Foley artist (aka: a professional sound effect maker). I’m technically a “professional” prompt sponsor, but I don’t make any money off that, nor do I feel like I need to. Is there a job similar to that where I can make actual money? ‘Cause that sounds like a dream job to me! Dream trip: A train trip across Canada. I’ve talked about it before, but it sounds really nice. I love riding on trains. Maybe a trip to somewhere in Europe? I’m not sure where, but anywhere with good bakeries, a mild climate, lots of history museums, and not too many other tourists would be perfect.

Woo, done! That took a while, but it was a good way to pass half an hour or so (yeah, I write slowly. This is why I don’t write stories. They’d never get done).

As usual, anyone who wants to spend a while doing this tag thing as well is welcome to do so! Consider yourself as good as tagged. (Do I look like I know 20 people? 20 people I know well enough to tag? Haha, that’s a good joke!)

[class-of-its-own]

GROWN MAN DRIFTING

A technique Erik has learned a long time ago makes him a definition of calmness. His number one rule in life is to control his breathing. When you see Erik, you see him breathing, - literally. Through his nose, then letting the air out of his mouth slowly, deliberately Erik is savouring each breath like it was a precious delicatesse. A precise exercise that allows him to take his time to choose his thoughts, his words and actions, and then to be present. Being present is his rule number two. I learned this in a disturbing way when I attended his 60th birthday reception at My Garage.

Class-of-its-Own's Max Noble spent a few days with the eight-time car stunt world record holder, making skid marks and stunts at Swedish race tracks defying the laws of physics, yelling "HELL YEAH!" and getting spiritual (gotta share the wisdom!) and figuring out if Erik W. has what it takes to become a grown man.

Already at My Garage’s parking slot I realize that this is Erik’s territory. The parked cars vary from the latest convertible Roll’s Royce to racing Ferrari’s with sponsor logos tagged in them in what I always found to be pure blasphemy, ruining godlike designed, iconic cars, taking attention away from what matters, the joy of seeing true perfection in a real life. But these cars are toys and My Garage is Disneyland for petrolheads. Erik is a eight time world championship in car stunts and loves drifting. Drifting is an act of art in motorsports where the driver aims his car at high speed at a wall, - sidewise and misses it, often with tiny little margins. Good drivers do it with a meter or half a meter margin, Erik’s stunts are counted in centimetres.

Drifting is not for the wussies, faint hearted chickens or those who are nursing, or pregnant, or may become pregnant. If you have any trouble experiencing any epic, you may not wish to witness or try to drifting, as it will make you a fifteen-year-old school kid, yelling “YEAAH”, high fiving your bud and possibly looking like you had just seen the saviour of the world appearing from the tire smokes, - in slow motion of course. It is juvenile, it serves no purpose what so ever than to mesmerise, hypnotise and blow your mind off. The parking place is full of circled tire skid marks from Erik’s stunts and I am excited to see what kind of cars are inside My Garage and to learn what kind of legend Erik W is.

Erik is not the first person I meet at the reception, nor the second or the third. In fact I couldn’t spot the man of the day at all the first five minutes. Then I see him far away from the podium and microphone, listening intensively to one of his guests talking. Erik looks directly to his guest’s eyes, not flickering, not paying attention to the eclectic scenery or to other people. He is completely present and the guest enjoys his attention. I should have learned this immediately, but I didn’t. Erik takes people in one by one. He respects each and everyone like she or he was his own grandparent. With love and respect in focused manner. He mannerism tells that “I am here with you. Now it is your time to open your heart.” One of the programs Erik does is called Hearttalk where he helps people to find and define their unique resources and how these can be used to create happiness and better life quality.

I find Erik later on at the bar, backstage that he seems to prefer, listening to another guest, and I decide to introduce myself finally, but the talk seems to go on forever. Erik has not moved an inch, not allowing me to get his attention. Erik is statue-like, not moving, hunching over bar desk, his back towards me and I am now very close to him, maybe 40 centimetres from him, within his very personal space, but he hasn't noticed me. I wait another minute or so, standing just next him, feeling stupid and I decide to tap his shoulder. I do three or so short taps on his right shoulder. Erik doesn’t react at all. This has never happened to me before. It is a rule, a survival instinct when something touches you from the blind ankle, you turn to look at the source of touch. But not Erik. I make a note that my taps very not light, but normal, firm taps, so it could not have gone unnoticed. I am baffled and I wonder for a moment if he had seen me before and I was not welcome. Maybe he was giving me the royal treatment and ignoring me? I should have known it better by now. Erik controls not only his breathing, his words, his actions, but also his reactions and most remarkably the universal human instincts. The fear of unknown, in this case me invading his personal space, has been programmed away and Erik’s mind was free to pay attention to his one and only chosen target at the moment. Erik lives focused life. Later on, when I was interviewing Erik, he said that he didn’t know who tapped his shoulder and he seemed baffled if it had happened at all. Erik is present.

Erik has as mentioned eight world records in stunts and that is impressive. And this was important to Erik in his past. To impress others. To understand Erik W we need to go back 50 years or so in time. “I know exactly when it happened. I was playing football with my friends and wanted to do good. Finally, I scored a goal and I thought that would impress my friends. But they booed and called me braggart. I didn’t understand it at all.” Telling this tiny little incident makes Erik still emotional. “My self-confidence was not high and I wanted to impress others.” Fear is a powerful emotion and I agree with Erik that most people let fear to dominate their thought processes, leading not to live their lives to their potential. Erik lived the life on the edge of fear of social disapproval and with a huge drive to impress the very same people, leading him to not to talk, but to perform in most dramatic and striking ways, driving a car 126 kilometers on two wheels and winning the worlds hardest motocross race Grand National, twice.

Erik is a bit of a mystery. He is reserved, yet welcoming. Erik's mind is built like turtle's torso, wearing an extremely strong protective shield, defined by slow, yet determined process and expressed with thoughtful curiosity when feeling safe or maybe it is just that he gives his dedicated time before reacting to outer impulses. He is not easy to read and I am more than happy, in fact, a bit relieved, to read his short facebook message about the first draft of this text that Erik had for review "Excellently written and with a sense to make it exciting - you are good my friend - would like to give you a ride in my drift car at Sturup race track". On Danish Championship day. I can see myself sitting in a custom made drift car next to the iconic stunt man, him being completely calm, counting his breaths and making the precise, calculated gear shifts, man becoming one with the machine, motor pushed to the extremes, me yelling terrified, excited curse words, trying desperately to keep some dignity and NOT to wet my pants.

To be continued...

Your true and loving portraitor,

Max Noble