Josep Vikalkin
Josep Hakar Vikalkin is a Fire Driver in Formula Lego, and the Season 7 Driver's Title Champion, a title he won with his long-time team, Osborne.
He raced for the sport's first 9 seasons, then returned in Season 11, after a year spent mostly with his daughter.
He raced with Osborne under the number 1-1, and with Fire under the number 1-9.
Early Life
Josep Vikalkin was born Josep Micheal Vikalkin in the New Roman Republic's Nova Terra Province in the year 221, which was conquered by Sergio Ren's Rebellion in 227. His family relocated to Karebyr after the Smelly Cabbage Incident, and Josep found an interest in stock car racing on the outskirts of town. He was very good, winning the regional title 3 years in a row.
Entry to Formula Lego
As rumours began to abound over Kai Octan and Michael Osborne's rumoured new race league, Vikalkin took it upon himself to investigate. He expressed a lot of interest in joining the league to his fellow Stock racers. Eventually, he managed to contact Michael Osborne, who offered him a seat on his team. Vikalkin accepted immediately, and was designated driver #1 in the league. He also convinced Osborne that hiring other racers (in lower, slower leagues) would be beneficial, as their expertise in racing would help them overcome the challenges of the Octan and National's new drivers (who were expected to be recruited from high-speed pilots).
Early Career (Season 1 - 4)
During Season 1, Josep Vikalkin struggled to "grow into" the level of machinery that he was tasked with driving (as Michael Osborne had predicted all of drivers would). However, he still managed to finish 2nd in Race 5, and 7th overall, which was the highest of the Osborne drivers.
Season 2 saw some improvement from Osborne as a whole, as well as for Josep specifically, who scored 3rd overall by a margin of just 10 points from the eventual winner Vance Lewison. He also scored Osborne's first Wins, taking the chequered flag first at both Race 2 and 5. He also scored another Podium at Race 1. Once again, he was the highest-placing of the Osborne Drivers.
While Osborne focused on the upcoming regulation changes, Osborne lagged behind their rivals once again in Season 3. Josep still managed to finish P4 overall, and scored his third career win at Race 4. However, thanks to the low amounts of development Osborne put into their Season 3 Chassis and Power Unit, that ended up being his sole podium of the season.
Season 4 finally saw a turnaround for Osborne. Rookie Kira Sanchez took the world by storm, recovering magnificently from a very poor start to her season (the season as a whole was notoriously racked with reliability issues), by winning the last three races of the season, edging out her competition to take the Title by 5 points from Salem Hoods. Although reliability led to Vikalkin not even managing to start 1/3 of the seasons' races, his victory at Race 1 kept him firmly in the top bracket, as he finished 4th Overall, and just 15 points behind Sanchez.
Kira Sanchez' Wingman (Season 5-6)
With reliability issues mostly fixed, Season 5 truly showed the dominance of the Osborne Team (and Sanchez). Sanchez took all 6 race victories by more than 10 seconds. Although distant to Sanchez, Vikalkin had an impressive season of his own, finishing second with 5 podiums. Due to Sanchez' consistently bad qualifying pace, he often used his (usually) better starting position to slow down the front runners and help her clear the pack.
Season 6 put an end to the Osborne Fairy Tale, though. A crash of Four front-running Osbornes at Race 3 suddenly propelled Eva Sayll and Mikael Cagne into the lead of the Title battle, and put Sanchez on a vicious recovery drive. Apart from that hiccup, Sanchez won every other race in the season. However, the loss of 75 points let Sayll take the championship by the skin of her teeth, despite having no career victories, and only 3 podiums that season. At the final race, Sanchez stormed off into the front very early on in the race, which meant that Sayll simply needed a P4 finish or better to secure her controversial title. However, Josep was bearing down on her, and looked poised to overtake her, pushing her back to P5. But poor communication and infighting with his teammate Avayah Osborne led him to lose valuable time, and he finished tantalizingly close to Sayll, but still behind her. Because of the missed race, Josep had a huge points deficit compared to other front-runners, and finished in a distant P4 overall.
Title Champion (Season 7)
After losing his team a Driver's Title, Vikalkin came back on a vengeance for Season 7. During the previous season, Sanchez and him had fallen in love, and had begun dating. They had also agreed that, no matter what, they let nothing come to the track, and remained respectfully rivals on track. However, unbeknownst to almost everyone, Kira had fallen pregnant, but luckily still managed to race through the whole season, thanks to the advanced Medical Technology that Michael Osborne's Wife, Julia, had developed to protect her own unborn children from the dangers of Space Travel years earlier. However, Sanchez still lost a little bit of her touch while pregnant, and only managed a single win that season, at Race 1. Josep, on the other hand, shone through this time, winning Race 2 and 3, and finishing on the podium during all six races. He lead the Driver's Standings by quite a ways from his girlfriend for more than half the season. Sanchez finished 20 points behind him, with only 395 points compared to his 415. Vikalkin, long regarded as one of the best drivers in Formula Lego, had finally proved himself beyond all doubt. He had finally shown to the world that he was not just among the best. He was among the Elite. He was a Driver's Title Champion.
End of First Career (Season 8-9)
Sanchez and Vikalkin's Daughter, Aurora, was born about a week before the Season 7 Finale, and Sanchez came back to Season 8 ready to take her third title. Which she did. Vikalkin helped his Girlfriend quite a bit, letting her through to take first place in Race 3, and holding off her friend and rival, Lily Gasly, in Race 4 and 6. Kira took her third title by 5 points from Gasly, and Josep finished happily in P3, more than a hundred points clear of the 4th place overall finisher, Sayll.
Season 9 saw the introduction of new regulations which severely, and disproportionately hurt Osborne. However, Sanchez simply refused to not win, and took victories at both Race 1 and 5. Vikalkin kept towards the front of the pack, but in such an underpowered car (compared to the Octan and National Cars) he only managed a single podium in the same time. But, at Race 6, tragedy struck. An unbelievable first lap saw four Osborne Drivers find their way into the top ten racers on the track, including Sanchez out front. However, in defending against Lewison and Gasly, Sanchez overworked every part of her car, and ended up bursting several of her tires on Lap 4, Turn 11, and falling into a roll. Because of how tight the front of the pack was, within seconds there were bits of seven different cars in a smoking mess on the track, including Josep, Kira and two of their fellow Osborne drivers. While all the other 6 racers received only minor injuries, and were able to return to the grid for the Final Race in Rennia, Sanchez suffered from severe head trauma, after her Car had flipped and her head had impacted the ground several times, and she passed away, with her Boyfriend and Daughter at her side, a few days later. The whole sport was shaken by such a dramatic death of such a legend, most of all Vikalkin, who had been planning to propose to her after the next race. Grieving, but representing Kira in the way she would have wanted to be remembered, he returned to the track for the final race, and took Pole Position and the Win by storm, pouring every bit of emotion, anger, grief, and sorrow within him into his car. At the post-race memorial service for Kira, he stated that he would not be racing the next season, as he needed to reorient his life, and now had a 2 year-old daughter to raise on his own
Sabbatical Year
Josep spent the first few weeks of his retirement at the Mansion on Cagne Island that him and Kira had purchased a few years prior. After intense counselling, and likely quite a bit of soul searching, he decided that he was going to be done with Formula Lego for the time being. He found himself supervising the production and design of commercial hydraulics in Rennia, but couldn't get his mind off of his almost-fiancé. After half a year of making hydraulics and doting on his daughter, he was approached by Bryne Ellys, the owner of Fire FL. She told him that they had a free seat for the next season, if he was interested in re-joining the sport. Once again, he found himself questioning his future, and what he should do with it. Kira's parents and sister, who had provided unquestioning support to Josep and Aurora during this time, somehow heard of the offer, and discussed it with him. They convinced him that it was not dishonouring to Kira to take up this offer, and that he should do it if he felt like it. With that, he signed on with Fire for Season 11, and quit his job making hydraulics, and began training for the demands of an FL car once again. Starting around the first Verskaell City Grand Prix, Josep and Aurora became a common sight at races once again, as he first returned as a fan, before spending more and more time in the Paddock. After the Côte Blanche Grand Prix, Ellys and Josep held a press conference where she announced his return to the sport for her team, which was met with thunderous and resounding applause.
Re-Entry to Formula Lego (Season 11-12)
Vikalkin returned to FL with a Bang, starting off with a P5 for Fire at the Cagne Island Race. He managed 3 podiums throughout the season, and one win in Monta Roblov, bringing him to P3 overall, behind only the two title contenders - Adrienne De Leon and Aleks Rosya.
Season 12 saw slightly less success from Fire as a team, but Vikalkin continued to perform well, coming 5th overall, and 1st within Fire, and knocking on the door of a podium at Races 7 & 8. His teammate, Camilla Cyne, had nearly won the driver's title during Vikalkin's sabbatical season, but still found herself consistently finishing behind Vikalkin. Vikalkin professed to not believe that Cyne was a worse driver than him, but rather that while Fire was struggling to reach the front, it was natural that a driver capable of winning a Title would struggle with motivation when a title was not on the line. Meanwhile, he had no guarantees of repeated success, and had already been given a second chance, and found all the motivation he needed in knowing that he may never get another chance after the present. His performance was, obviously, good enough for Ellys to renew his contract for three years, guaranteeing he would be racing until at least Season 15. Rumours also began to circulate over the potential of Vikalkin being in a relationship for the first time since Kira Sanchez' death. According to paddock rumours, Avayah Osborne had begun to spend significant amounts of time with Josep's daughter, Aurora during Josep's extensive testing and media requirements with Fire, and by extension was spending a huge amount of time with Josep. Avayah, who was still racing for Osborne at the time (and Windsor for the last few races of the season) had significantly less media duties (and significantly less testing due to the team's underfunded nature towards the end of its life) and seemed to spend a huge amount of her extra free time with Josep & Kira's daughter. After Osborne was withdrawn from the sport towards the end of the season, Avayah found her first drive away from her & her dad's team at Windsor for the last few races of the season, where she reassured the entire grid that she hadn't lost any of the pace she had seemed to find over the last few seasons compared to her teammates. Vikalkin was assumed to have put in a good word for her, and she found herself with an offer to race for Fire for Season 13, alongside Camilla Cyne and Josep.
Fire's Dominant Form
As Fire took a huge step forwards in Season 13 in their form, and dominated most of the Season. Vikalkin won two races across the season, but suffered two DNFs across the season, that put him out of contention for the Driver's Title. He also found himself slightly behind Avayah Osborne and Camilla Cyne on pace, and had to resign himself to being the last Fire driver. However, he did find a level of pace over single-lap qualifying that he never had before. With two wins, it was by no means a write-off season, but Vikalkin stressed that he felt that he was capable of more, and made multiple promises to finish higher than 5th overall the next season. It was also confirmed by Him and Avayah that they had entered a relationship over the previous year.
S14
Second Championship (S15)
Third Balkavanian War
Third Championship (S16)
Results
| Season | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Race 5 | Race 6 | Race 7 | Race 8 | Race 9 | Race 10 | Race 11 | Race 12 | Race 13 | Race 14 | Race 15 | Final Position | Final Position in Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 5 | 11 | 7 | 19 | 2 | 4 | N/A | 7 | 1 | ||||||||
| 55 | 25 | 45 | 0 | 70 | 60 | 200 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 6 | N/A | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| 65 | 75 | 60 | 25 | 75 | 50 | 350 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 3 | 8 | 5 | DNF | 1 | 6 | 4 | N/A | 4 | 1 | ||||||||
| 40 | 55 | 0 | 75 | 50 | 60 | 280 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 4 | 1 | DNS | 4 | 2 | DNS | 5 | N/A | 4 | 2 | ||||||||
| 75 | -- | 60 | 70 | -- | 55 | 260 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | N/A | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 60 | 65 | 70 | 70 | 65 | 65 | 395 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 6 | 4 | 12 | DNF | 4 | 3 | 5 | N/A | 4 | 2 | ||||||||
| 60 | 20 | 0 | 60 | 65 | 55 | 260 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | N/A | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 65 | 75 | 75 | 65 | 65 | 70 | 415 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 8 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | N/A | 3 | 2 | ||||||||
| 55 | 65 | 70 | 75 | 60 | 75 | 400 | Osborne | ||||||||||
| Season 9 | 5 | 5 | DNF | 7 | 3 | DNF | 1 | N/A | 5 | 2 | |||||||
| 50 | 50 | 0 | 40 | 60 | 0 | 70 | 270 | Osborne | |||||||||
| Season 11 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 2 | N/A | 3 | 1 | ||
| 55 | 55 | 35 | 55 | 35 | 60 | 70 | 75 | 45 | 50 | 40 | 70 | 645 | Fire | ||||
| Season 12 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 7 | N/A | 5 | 1 | ||
| 25 | 50 | 55 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 | 60 | 15 | 15 | 50 | 45 | 525 | Fire | ||||
| Season 13 | DNF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 8 | 3 | DNF | 3 | N/A | 5 | 3 | ||
| 0 | 65 | 75 | 70 | 60 | 60 | 75 | 25 | 40 | 65 | 0 | 65 | 600 | Fire | ||||
| Season 14 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | N/A | 3 | |||||||||
| 65 | 60 | 75 | 60 | 65 | 70 | Fire | |||||||||||
| Season 15 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Fire | |||||||||||||||||