DNN2

  "Hello, everyone, and welcome to Aletsch Gorge for the fourth race of this year's Imperial League season. It's a narrow, twisty course but extremely fast in places, and nowhere more so than here, at the legendary Shogun's Pocket chicane. At its narrowest the ravine is only a hundred and nine feet wide, but the dragons will come through here out of the dive from the sixth to the seventh ring at well over eighty knots – that's over ninety miles an hour.

  "Or at least, the dragons with brave riders will. It's a course that favours smaller dragons, and after the last race at the Rhuen Delta was a playground for big solar drakes like Lucia Aelschu's Olympia and Nikita Coro's Incandesia, this time it's another multiple-time champion and another promising rookie who are the ones to watch, Feran Andoal and Phoebe Tenryuu.

  "This is DNN2, I'm Sam Tinbru, and we'll be bringing you all this weekend's action from the practice sessions through to the race, along with interviews, analysis, and comment from the teams. I'm joined, as always, by former IL team principal Bob Anmo. Bob, there's a real air of excitement about the paddock this weekend, don't you think?"

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  "There is, it's been a few years since anyone was really excited by the thought of racing at Aletsch, but we're pretty much guaranteed a shakeup this time."

  "Indeed. For those of you new to the Imperial League – and if you are new, thanks for joining us, it's great to have you, welcome to the show – Feran Andoal has dominated here… well, really since he first joined the IL six years ago. He's won four of the last five races here. One more and he'll equal the record for most wins at this course, which has stood for almost forty years, absolutely incredible really. And it's even more incredible that we're now talking – quite seriously, I should add – about him being challenged by a rookie."

  "Well, when he was a rookie we talked quite seriously about him challenging champions."

  "True, turnabout is fair play, as they say. Can Phoebe Tenryuu really take the fight to Feran this weekend? Or can anyone else?"

  "Soot's a hell of a dragon, especially for this kind of twisty stuff, and he's small, which is a real advantage here. Apart from maybe some of the mountain courses up in Norda and Ura, I'd say this is where they're most favoured."

  Wednesday: Qualifying - major update (706 words)

  Friday: Phoebe - supplement (250 words)

  Sunday: Race (7111 words); Phoebe - supplement (189 words)

  articles from a sports website covering dragon racing, if you want a broader perspective on the lore, the world and the sport.

  Fifth race: Buildup starts July 8th, race day July 20th

  Sixth race: Buildup starts July 22nd, race day 4th August

  Seventh race: Buildup starts 5th August, race day 12th August

  Eighth race: Buildup starts 13th August, race day 18th August

  Ninth race: Buildup starts 19th August, race day 25th August

  Tenth race: Buildup starts 26th August, race day 1st September

  Mid-season break: 4th-8th September

  Eleventh race: Buildup starts 9th September, race day 15th September

  Twelfth race: Buildup starts 16th September, race day 22nd September

  Thirteenth race: Buildup starts 23rd September, race day 6th October

  Fourteenth race: Buildup starts 7th October, race day 13th October

  Fifteenth race: Buildup starts 14th October, race day 20th October

  Sixteenth race: Buildup starts 23rd October, race day 27th October

  Seventeenth race: Buildup starts 30th October, race day 10th November

  Final race: Buildup starts 11th November, race day tbd (likely 1st week in December)