Kira Sanchez

Sanchez, in her Osborne Racing Suit, Circa 247 (Season 4)

Avakkir Danielle Sanchez was the first 3-time Formula Lego Driver's Title Champion, a feat she accomplished with Osborne. She was also the mother of Aurora Sanchez-Vikalkin, the fiancé of Josep Vikalkin, and was considered by many to be the greatest FL Driver of all time.

She raced with Osborne under the number 46-17

Early Life

Kira was born in 224, on Cagne Island, in the Cagne Duchy. She grew up in a middle class family, and became active in the local karting club at age 14. After two years of struggling in the midfield of the club, she found a groove, and began to win. She won 3 of the 18 races in the 241 season (when she was 17), and won the 8 of 15 the next season, taking home the EotLP Junior Karting Title. She proceeded to win the junior category title once more, before graduating to the "senior" level of Karting for the 244 Season (which co-incided with the first Season of Formula Lego). She came close to winning it, but a nasty crash put her out for the last three races of the season. However, in 245 she came back as strong as ever, and dominated the season, ahead of her karting teammate, Ella Fader, who would later race for, most notably, National, Octan, Osborne, and Angel. Michael Osborne, seeing her success in High Level Karting, offered her a position at Osborne for Season 3. Kai Octan offered her a position at his own team, with a slightly higher salary, which Osborne promptly countered, with a significantly higher figure. She accepted Osborne's offer, and signed to his team for Season 3. However, Octan, who had moved on from Sanchez, signed the Jr. Category Champion, Natasha Hughes, at Octan, and chose to fire Lily Gasly from their team. Osborne quickly signed her, before their legal department realised that they no longer had enough free positions to have both Gasly and Sanchez race on Osborne during Season 3. Osborne offered Sanchez a fully payed deference to Season 4, as well as full sponsorship for a title defence in the Sr. Karting Series. After some consideration, Kira accepted his offer, and returned to Karting for one more year. She won again, with a much larger gap to her teammate, who finished 2nd overall. Finally, in 247 (Season 4), at the age of 23, Kira Sanchez joined the Osborne Formula Lego Team.

First Championship

Kira's very first race ended in dissapointment; her car failed even to start before the race leader finished their first lap, and she was designated "Did Not Start." her problem would afflict many other drivers that season, as the faulty sparkers that all teams used had a very high failure rate. However, she managed to get rolling just three seconds before she would be lapped during Race 2, and fought her way back from the very back of the Grid to finish P13, in the points. At Race 3, despite several spins and another poor start, Kira managed to finish P9 overall, scoring 35 points. Then she found her groove. Sanchez won Race 4 narrowly from teammate (and later lover), Josep Vikalkin, then won Race 5 by nearly 20 seconds from Lily Gasly, who had moved back to Octan after Season 3. She won the final race of the season, ahead of National's Vance Lewison, and Octan's Salem Hoods, in P3. Sanchez, who had been P7 in the standings after Race 5, managed to squeeze out a narrow tile victory, 5 points ahead of where Hoods eventually finished. Besides Hoods, Sanchez was the highest rank person to finish the race; Vikalkin, Mikael Cagne, Gasly, Jacob Norris, and Denise Perez all failed to spart the race. She set the record for the least points a title winner scored to still win a title. Kira, the first Osborne Title-winner, also helped to score Osborne their first Constructor's Title, as well.

Dominant Seasons

Seasons 5 & 6 were indubitably Kira's seasons, as she won 11 of the 12 races across the two seasons, failing only once to take the chequered flag first, at Season 6 Race 3. Season 5 was barely a title fight, as she stormed the chequered flag by more than 10 seconds at all 6 races, and her nearest rival, teammate Josep Vikalkin, finished more than 55 points behind her maximum points haul. She became the first (and to date most recent) Driver to score maximum points in a season.

Season 6 was a controversial one, as Kira won 5 of the 6 races, but failed to make the chequered flag in Race 3 after a large crash with three other Osborne Drivers. Because of that huge points loss (up to 75 points lost), Eva Sayll managed to score more points across the season, even though she had not yet won a race in her career, and finished P2 only twice throughout the season. However, Kira accepted her title loss. During this season, she also became romantically involved with Josep Vikalkin, a fellow Osborne Racer.

Pregnancy

During Season 7, the news came out that Kira had fallen pregnant with Josep Vikalkin, which raised large questions over her ability to race, and the safety of her child, etc. Julia Osborne, the wife Michael Osborne, had previously invented a system for neutralizing forces on developing foetuses in order to allow her to fly aboard a rocket into space. Michael and Julia adapted this system to work within a Formula Lego car, but with the extra weight that came with the safety systems, she was much less competitive, and found herself locked in a battle for P2 overall with Lily Gasly, while Vikalkin went on to win the title. Their child was born about a week before the Season 7 Finale, and was named Aurora Sanchez-Vikalkin.

Final Success

Rocking back after the mental, physical, and vehicular limitations of pregnancy, Kira Sanchez set out to win herself another title in Season 8. Once again, she managed to do so, although this time Octan's Lily Gasly was much closer to the title than ever before. But, with two more victories across the season, Kira finished the season 5 points ahead of Gasly, making herself a 3 times world champion, with a lot of help from Vikalkin, who played her wingman in preventing Gasly from winning the title.

Last Title Effort

Sanchez started out Season 9 like she had the previous 4; by winning the first race. However, with the Osborne engine and aerodynamics inferior to both the Octan and National in this new rules re-shuffle, Sanchez found herself fighting an uphill battle to try and win the title. However, with Podiums at Race 2 and 4, and another Win at Race 5, she managed to pull out to the front of the pack and gave herself a gap of 20 points going into the final two races. However, in a huge, 7-car crash, Kira suffered major injuries, and was evacuated to Rennia immediately, after first responders had seen how badly her situation seemed. Her helmet was cut off to avoid putting any pressure on her neck. She was unconscious, and losing a lot of blood, so she was put into an induced coma and intubated. Doctors operated on her all night, but by the morning, it became clear she would never race again, and would likely suffer permanent brain damage. As her car rolled, her head had been smashed directly into the ground at high speeds, multiple times. Just two days after the initial crash, her situation improved slightly, but suddenly worsened just a few hours later. Josep Vikalkin was airlifted from Cagne Island Hospital a day after the crash to be with his teammate & fiancé in Rennia. Just a day after he arrived, and 53 hours after the initial crash, Kira Sanchez, the best racer the world had ever seen, passed away, having never regained consciousness. Not surviving long enough to see the final race of the Season, Formula Lego decided to continue with the Race after consultation with Family & Friends of Kira, deciding that she would not want the race to be cancelled because of her. It was renamed to the Kira Sanchez Memorial Race, and her fiancé, Josep Vikalkin, roared to victory, fuelled by the emotion of losing Kira.

Before the accident, Kira was the favourite to win the Season 9 title, as no driver had ever lost the title when arriving at the penultimate race with a 20-point lead, and Osborne was clearly capable of winning at least Race 7: Josep Vikalkin (who was systemically slower than her across their stint as teammates) won it with comparative ease. Based on those observations, it was reasonable to assume that Kira would have won the Title overall. Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance to lock in a fourth Driver's Title

Legacy

Kira is regarded as one of, if not the greatest Formula Lego Drivers of all time. Although questions over her success have come up periodically in discussions on the subject, such as the fact that she only raced Formula Lego Races at Cagne Circuit, as the Calendar had not reached the Season 10 Critical-Mass point yet. However, statistics such as her 11-Race Win streak, her overall 55% win-rate (19w/35r), the highest ever recorded. The next-best win-rate comes from Natasha Hughes, who fatally crashed in her 3^rd race, after winning 1 race, giving her a 33.33% win-rate. After Hughes, the closest the competition has ever been (on a season-end basis) was Adrienne De Leon, who had a 29.17% win-rate following her first two seasons in the sport.

Kira's fiancé, Josep Vikalkin was deeply involved in maintaining Sanchez' memory within the sport, and was fundamental in the creation of the Kira Sanchez Memorial Trophy, a yearly award given to the best-performing Rookie. He raised their daughter, Aurora Sanchez-Vikalkin, after Sanchez' death, and encouraged her Karting & Racing ambitions. When she joined Formula Lego in Season 23, he encouraged her to race under the name Sanchez, in her mother's memory, which she did.

Aurora, in her own right, may be the only driver who ever truly compared to the level of sheer & innate driving talent, winning more titles than anyone befoe her, and blowing past her mother's record of 2-titles-in-a-row (which had since been tied, notably first by Josep Vikalkin), to score 4 in a row from Season 28 to Season 31.

Records

Kira hold the record for the highest win-rate in a season (100%, Season 05). She also holds the second-best win-rate in a season (83.33%, Season 6), and is tied with Vance Lewison for third-best win-rate (50%, Season 04), a feat he accomplished in Season 2. Her & Lewison are the only two drivers who have ever won 1/2 or more the races in a season.

Sanchez was the first FL Driver's Title Champion to ever succesfully defend their title (Season 04-05), the first to win two titles (Seasons 04 & 05), and the first to win three titles (Seasons 04, 05, and 08). She was also the first to ever win non-consecutive titles (Seasons 04 & 05, Season 08).

Sanchez held the record for the most career wins from Season 05 Race 4 (her 7^th win, passing Vance Lewison's 6) until Season 15 Race 15, when her fiancé-bereaved Josep Vikalkin scored his 20^th Career win.

She alone held the record for most wins in a season (6, Season 05) until Season 14, Race 13, when Avayah Osborne tied it. Josep Vikalkin then tied with them at Season 15 Race 12, and surpassed the Record with his 7^th win in Season 15, achieved at Season 15 Race 15.

Sanchez holds the record for the longest win-streak in FL history, scoring 11 wins in a row, between Season 04 Race 4 and Season 06 Race 2. In a time period when a standard season was 6 races, 11 wins was absolutely unheard of. She also holds the second-place record, scoring 4 consecutive wins between Season 06 Race 4 and Season 07 Race 1.

Sanchez holds the highest career win-rate, winning 54.29% of the races she entered (19 wins in 35 races).

Sanchez holds the highest career podium appearance rate, finishing on the podium 77.14% of the time, scoring 27 podiums in 35 races. She also holds the highest win:podium ratio, appearing on the top step 54.29% of the time she finished on the podium.

After Natasha Hughes, who scored 3 pole positions in the 3 races she started, Sanchez holds the record for the highest Pole %, having started from the front row 31.43% of the time.

Sanchez held the record for the most career Pole Positions from Season 06 Race 3 (7^th Mara, 249), when she overtook Salem Hoods by taking a 7^th Career Pole, until Season 11 Race 07 (31^st Zabez, 253), when Eva Sayll won a 12^th Career Pole.

Results

Season	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Final Position	Final Position in Team
Season 4	DNS	13	9	1	1	1	Not Raced This Season	1	1
	0	15	35	75	75	75		275	Osborne
Season 5	1	1	1	1	1	1		1	1
	75	75	75	75	75	75		450	Osborne
Season 6	1	1	DNF	1	1	1		2	1
	75	75	0	75	75	75		375	Osborne
Season 7	1	2	4	4	2	4		2	2
	75	70	60	60	70	60		395	Osborne
Season 8	1	2	1	3	2	3		1	1
	75	70	75	65	70	65		420	Osborne
Season 9	1	3	5	2	5	DNF	DNE	4	1
	75	65	55	70	55	0	-	315	Osborne