DNN2

  “Well, Bob, twenty-five minutes to go until qualifying and the weather’s turning for the worse. We could be in for a wild session.”

  “I think we are, Sam. I’m very glad I don’t have to call strategy for any of these teams. Or the race organisers, to be honest.”

  “Yes, the race coordinator can delay or even call off qualifying altogether if the weather gets really bad, but they don’t like doing that, it causes all sorts of other problems. I don’t think it’s quite bad enough for that yet, at least I think everyone will be able to get some sort of lap in, but they’ll be significantly slower than the kind of times we’d expect in good conditions.”

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  “Yeah, in the dry we’d expect lap times around a hundred and seven seconds here, I think we’ll be lucky to see a pole position time of under a hundred ten today. The wind will be following up the climb to the sixth ring, that’ll help a bit, but it’s mostly blowing across the line of the course, which unbalances the pressure across a dragon’s wings and can make them unsteady in flight. Tricky stuff.”

  “Indeed. It’s very likely that qualifying will come down to whoever gets luckiest with the weather, it’s quite inconsistent right now, sort of coming in waves, so there might be a gap that a few manage to get out in. We have some very good weather forecasters here at the course, but there’s a little bit of a delay on their reports reaching the teams, and that delay might be too much today.”

  “It’s going to play havoc with the starting order for the race. We’ll see some upsets tomorrow.”

  Sunday: Qualifying (3093 words) and DNN2 - supplement (285 words)

  Tuesday: Mynah - major update (1338 words)

  Wednesday: Adelie - major update (711 words)

  Thursday: Ian - supplement (533 words)

  Friday: Phoebe - supplement (569 words)

  Saturday: Petunia - supplement (649 words)

  Sunday: Race (8529 words); DNN1 - supplement (203 words); Phoebe - supplement (103 words)

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

  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)