Venture off to a rough start; team owner MIA

Race Report
Posted on September 4, 110 EST by Aurora Speed

After the first two races of the sixth season of the Racing League, Venture Racing are still looking for their first victory, as they fight increasingly fierce competitors and technical difficulties. Meanwhile, team owner Takashi Kurosawa has been absent from both races, with no explanation as to his whereabouts.

Mysteriously, Venture team owner Takashi Kurosawa has dropped from under the radar completely. Following the Venture post season party, Kurosawa helped the team in its initial preparations for the new season, but just days before Race 1 in Kador, on Aug 24, Kurosawa stopped responding to requests for holocalls. Official information from the team about any knowledge as to Kurosawa’s whereabouts have been scarce, and we know little other than a band of travelers having reported a brief encounter with Kurosawa in the Old Man Star solarsystem of the Essence region. According to the travelers, Kurosawa was commanding a Navy-issue Megathron, which would mean that he was most likely piloting the VRT Victory, the Venture flagship which has otherwise not seen service since Kendar Zek was at the helm prior to his untimely demise. We will naturally report any updates on this matter as soon as they are available.

Returning to the Racing League, season 5 sensation Cristina Rawr, who dominated the last half of the season, has continued her dominant performance the first two races into the new season, taking home two victories and solidifying her aspirations to conquer the championship. Meanwhile, Venture Racing has struggled to find their feet in the first couple of races. Many top dogs in the interceptor class of the League had uttered their considerations to switch to frigates in order to pilot their favourite faction frigates, which have now been allowed back into League play. It turns out that all of them eventually decided to stay in the interceptor class.

Judging by the results of the two first races of the season, three teams are looking strong in all three classes. More so than the two others, Dirtside has shown that they mean serious business, by taking home no less than five out of six possible victories, leaving the rest of the League and spectators to wonder what Dirtside is doing right that everyone else is not. Meanwhile, Scuderia Dragonstar, the result of an official merger between Dragonstar Racing and Scuderia Caille, and Venture Racing are fighting for scraps.

In race 1, Venture was evenly represented in all three classes. KillJoy Tseng joined veteran interceptor racer Elsebeth Rhiannon in that most prestigious of classes, while Thulla Icin joined with new members and racing rookies NeonFolf and Chaz Landal in the frigate class, and Teo Kiesh (also a new member of Venture) and Felica DeWinter rounded out the roster in the assault ship class. Unfortunately for Venture, things would have it so that the team’s best performance of the evening was an impressive 2nd place for Teo Kiesh in the assault ship class. In the interceptor class, KillJoy Tseng and Elsebeth Rhiannon both expressed great displeasure with their finishing 7th and 8th, respectively. In frigates, Thulla Icin finished just outside of the podium, while rookies NeonFolf and Chaz Landal finished a respectable 7th and 8th in the evenings biggest class, counting no less than 15 racers.

While Venture’s performance in race 1 was not something to snicker at, it was certainly disappointing by Venture standards, and so most Venture pilots eagerly anticipated race 2 in The Forge as an opportunity to erase the impressions of race 1 from the minds of the fans. Unfortunately, technical difficulties would strike hard at not only Venture, but many racers in general that evening, as the racers were set to pass through the system of Jita, notorious for overloaded gate systems with pilot blackouts and system malfunctions as a consequence. Particularly unlucky this evening was team captain KillJoy Tseng, suffering major downtime not only during his attempt to pass through Jita, but in the remainder of the race as well, making his last place finish in the interceptor class more or less inevitable. In the end, Venture took home a 4th place in interceptors (Elsebeth Rhiannon), 3rd place in frigates (Thulla Icin) and 3rd place in assault ships (Teo Kiesh). Also representing Venture was NeonFolf (5th place in frigates) and Reshessa (5th place in assault ships).

The League now takes a break from the regular circuit and will debut a new type of race this Saturday, when an exhibition race will see the first use of exploration techniques in the League. The next regular event will take place in Domain on Saturday, Sep 13.

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