<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/Mtx59.jpg)</div><br/><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><strong>Name:</strong> Allison Leclerc<br/><strong>Title:</strong> The Brains<br/><strong>Location:</strong> Foulweather Bluff<br/><strong>Tags:</strong> Rurik</span></span><br/><hr/><br/>Allison knew what she needed to do, her strategy was usually pretty similar from race to race. She'd tweak certain details depending on the track, the weather or the competition, but the overall goal was simply to get ahead of the pack as soon as possible. Some racers, like Cori or Taras, for example, really thrived off of the chaos that happened when multiple cars were all jockeying for position in a tightly knit group, using the momentum that they gained from fighting through situations like that to really get into 'the zone' and then ride that towards some epic last minute comebacks, but that was their specialty, not hers.<br/><br/>Yes, Ally could battle it out amidst the traffic with the best of them, but it was when she had nobody in front to block or hinder her that she could really break into her stride and attack the corners in the way that only she knew how. It was also what her Porsche was primarily designed to excel at. The focus when she'd been building and modding it had been to get the balance, handling and reliability as close to perfect as possible. It was still plenty fast at 756 horsepower with neck-snapping acceleration, but still couldn't quite match up to some of the more monstrous muscle cars like Tars' Firebird or Tipene's 'Vette in sheer power, so it was imperative for Allison to get into a favorable position where she could compensate for that weakness.<br/><br/>With that in mind, she focused on the lights, held down the clutch and brought her RPM up to the optimal rate with help from her launch control, which also got the twin turbos spooling before the Porsche had even budged off the starting line. After the first second of the yellow light, Ally had already sprung into action, knowing that it would take her a fraction of a second to release the clutch and slam the throttle, and then than another fraction of a second would go by before the power got transfered from her car's crank to its wheels, so by the time that she actually started moving the light had just turned green. <br/><br/>It may not have been her best start of all time, but it was good, allowing her to get off the line somewhere between two and three tenths of a second after the green light. Having been lucky enough to be seeded in the second row of cars, Ally had less people to go through than the guys starting at the back, which was nice. Her traction control kicked in to limit her speed somewhat as she took off, which may have seemed counterintuitive to those that were always under the impression that faster was better, but it allowed her to squeeze as much power out of her machine as possible without making her back wheels spin, which ultimately would only have made her lose a precious second or so making smoke and not doing much else.<br/><br/>The good launch propelled Ally ahead of the orange S13 and the IS300 with the super gaudy body kit that made it hardly recognizable, the two car's which had started next to her, and she also managed to squeeze past the gunmetal GTR32 on the very first corner. The driver of that car was clearly inexperienced or nervous, and even though he'd been lucky enough to get a spot in the front row, it was quite likely that he'd be trailing behind everyone else within a few minutes. <br/><br/>That just left a Shelby GT500 and a BMW M3 ahead of her, both with veteran drivers that wouldn't roll over and allow themselves to be overtaken quite so easily. Fortunately for Allison, they were both already caught up in a heated battle and slightly bogging each other down, so she just waited patiently for an opening. It came on the very last turn before the track's first straightaway section when the Shelby tried to overtake his opponent on the outside, but the M3 swerved to block the opening and the Shelby's drivers overcompensated when trying to avoid clipped and ended up in the bumpy grass on the side of the road. Not the cleanest move in the world, and Ally probably would have been pissed if she'd been the one in the Shelby, but that still didn't stop her from pouncing on the opportunity that had presented herself, taking the corner very aggressively on the inside and passing both of them at once.<br/><br/>So far so good, especially since the GT500 was one of those annoyingly fast cars that would have caused her some problems in this next section of the race. With a quick glance at her rear view mirror as she shifted into 5th gear, Ally saw the BMW's bright xenons a few car lengths behind her as well as several more pairs of headlights slightly further away - nothing too alarming. However, when she checked again two seconds later, she saw a second car peeling away from behind the M3 and quickly growing larger and larger in her mirror, flying by the black German-engineered machine almost as if it were sitting still. <br/><br/>Allison's heart rate shot up considerably as she looked back at the road ahead and licked her lips briefly, having already recognized the ominous form of the Corvette that was no more than a few seconds away from her by now. It was by far the last car or person that she wanted to see, so of course it had to be him. Things had been going too well for it not to be. <em>Rurik...</em></div>