Time Setting: 2021
Genre: Life
Minimum Word Goal: 90,000
Timespan: late May–August
Locations: Cologne & Nürburg, Germany; Spielberg, Austria; Zandvoort, Netherlands; Misano Adriatico, Campagnano di Roma, & Imola, Italy; Born, Luxembourg
Main Characters: Tor Bergmann
Background Information:
Born the only son and youngest of two children to a high-ranking corporate executive and his photographer wife who make their home in Cologne, Tor has enjoyed a wealthy, privileged upbringing.
The company for which his father works was established by his forebears over a century ago, and is currently owned by Tor’s grandfather. Tor’s father is the only son in his family, and, as the only son of his father, Tor is expected to follow his father into the corporate world and take over the company after his father.
Tor, however, lacks any corporate interest whatsoever, not only because he finds his paternal grandparents quite stiff and intimidating, but because, thanks to his kind, loving maternal family, he’s become interested in something vastly more interesting: motorsport.
His maternal grandpa’s wealth comes largely from motorsport, where he manages drivers, including Tor’s only uncle, Zikki, who is one of Tor’s motorsport heroes — the other being Sebastian Vettel, who competes in Formula 1, the class of single-seater motorsport which Tor dreams of someday driving in.
He was introduced to Formula 1 by watching races with his grandpa and Uncle Zikki on TV before he attended his first race of any kind at the age of seven, where he was surprised and delighted to learn that Uncle Zikki had been one of the drivers in the race when Uncle Zikki finished in one of the podium positions.
Immediately Tor wanted to race for himself, especially when he learned there were racing series for kids his age, and thanks to his mother’s persuasive arguments, his father was convinced to permit Tor to start karting, which — along with going to watch Uncle Zikki race and being taken to other races — quickly took up a lot of his summers.
Tor has been widely recognised as a reasonably talented driver in every level of karting that he’s participated in, with comparisons to Uncle Zikki suggesting that he’s the better of the two, which Tor doesn’t think is fair to Uncle Zikki, even though Uncle Zikki doesn’t seem to mind.
One of the highlights of Tor’s life so far was when Uncle Zikki succeeded in making it to Formula 1 when Tor was ten. Unfortunately, Uncle Zikki’s career was short-lived because the team who signed him were financially troubled and after two seasons of struggling, finally folded, leaving Uncle Zikki without a car to drive.
Uncle Zikki was able to get work as a test driver in Formula 1 for the next three seasons, and Tor held out hope that his uncle would be able to earn a seat with the teams who employed him, but, unfortunately, such never happened and Uncle Zikki decided to move to the United States with his girlfriend to race in IndyCar.
Tor was saddened by this, as he felt it proved Uncle Zikki had lost hope that he’d ever get back into a Formula 1 seat, a dream which Tor refused to give up on for either Uncle Zikki or himself.
The dream of driving in Formula 1 for himself hasn’t been without its challenges, as Tor’s grandfather has been even less understanding of Tor’s affinity for motorsport than his father has been — having even resisted the idea of the family company sponsoring Tor in his racing efforts — and has even gone so far as disinherit Tor because of the fact that Tor’s academic marks in the subjects he needs to take on the corporate role both his grandfather and father expect him to fulfill is generally poor, even as he excels in the mathematic and scientific studies which are central to motorsport.
Although wanting Tor to have better academic performance in the subjects necessary to take over the company as well, Tor’s father hasn’t gone to the same extremes as Tor’s grandfather has done, even if his support for Tor’s racing aspirations is barely warmer than the ice-cold support Tor’s grandfather shows, especially since Tor has finally reached the age where he can compete in Formula 4.
This frustrates Tor most especially because of the fact that his sister is actually interested in the corporate world of her father and grandfather, and would gladly take over the company from them, except that they won’t have her, exclusively owing to the fact that she is female.
Tor is sure that if his father and grandfather would acknowledge his sister’s interest in and knack for all the corporate stuff that he considers dreadfully boring he would be able to pursue his racing dream without any sort of worries or inhibitions, but as of yet neither he, his sister, nor his mother have figured out how to convince them of such a thing.
Pronunciations:
Nürburg: nuhrburg
Spielberg: shpeelberg
Zandvoort: zahndvohrt
Born: bohrn
Bergmann: behrgmahn
Vettel: fehttl
