The off-season between 2026 and 2027 was big in my Motorsport Manager journey. Cindi Stefanowski was obviously not interested in signing for my team again. So I needed a new reserve driver. What shocked me was that Nassor Lorensen, who I had moved up to be a main driver after I demoted Stef late-season, had a patience level of 1. If I didn't offer him a dream deal, he wouldn't talk to me again. And that was my big mistake. I offered him a good amount, but not what he wanted, and so he left. Then I couldn't find a driver for the second car, 2025 champion Nick Chu being my car 1 driver. I was sure that Nassor would stay, and he didn't. So I had no backups and ended up signing a driver just before the first round. I really didn't want to run a pay driver of no talent in the second car next to a series champion. So I luckily found Josh Bourne at the eleventh hour. He was talented and while not huge in potential he would do a solid job for the team. The new face of Archer BMR was found. After that, I only had to find a better reserve driver and make sure that they were happy.
It was a solid start for the new look team. Josh impressed to qualify 10th at Black Sea. Nick was 14th. Now I didn't have huge expectations for Josh. Heck, if he stayed with the team I was happy. Nevertheless, I was excited by his solid stats and hoped that at some stage he would start to deliver points. In the race, which was dry, Nick moved up to 6th, and Josh dropped back to 12th. I think he was held up in the pits, so it might not have been all his fault.Anyway, the old veteran of Nick scored for us like always, and the young charger had an okay start to his career. The reserve driver was a pay driver with no talent, and who I had no interest in using in practice sessions.
At Munich, Josh showed himself to be something of a qualifying star. He was 5th, ahead of Nick way down in 15th. Both drivers did a great job in the race, and Josh finished 7th, with Nick 10th. Again, Josh's race pace wasn't flash but I was happy that he was showing something from his talents. You can see in the screenshot above that his cornering was shocking, but for a 19 year old his improvement was rapid and so I was more than happy to wait patiently.
Anyway, when at Munich I rocked up with our new reserve driver, who I was extremely excited about! Joelle Mellor was even younger than Josh, but was ultra talented. My driver lineup was now complete. I had the old 29 year old legend Nick Chu (the champion!), with 19 year old cowboy Josh Bourne learning the ropes in car 2, and 5 star protege Joelle Mellor on a big money deal. Even if Nick peaked out and faded away, I'd just drop him into the reserve role and wave goodbye, then launch the new-look sexy Archer BMR team with their young chargers full of enthusiasm and talent!
Milan was nothing to get excited about. Nick qualified 14th, and Josh 16th. Nick was amazing as always, moving up to 5th in the race, and Josh shuffled up to 12th in another solid performance. I forgot to mention or even check, and you can see that the chairman's expectations dropped down after 2026 and now I could enjoy myself so long as we did better than 7th in the teams championship.
Tondela was fun. Qualifying sucked with Nick 16th and Josh 20th. But Josh showed the critics what he's made of in the race and finished 8th, with Nick just behind in 10th.
Then we went to Ardennes. We lucked out again with half wet qualifying, putting Nick 2nd and Josh 3rd. It was a wet-dry-wet race, and of course Nick smashed them all and won the race. 🏆 Josh did a good job finishing 7th.
I also took a screenshot of the Asia Pacific Cup standings after Espirit GP (my old team) scored a double podium with Johnny Navarro (my old star) leading the way in 2nd.
We returned to Munich, where Josh started 16th and Nick 19th. Nick charged up to 7th, and Josh moved up to 15th. Archer faced critics from all angles, but I think that things were very positive for all involved.
Then we went to Vancouver, where it was all kinds of wet and dry. The half wet qualifying session saw us stick Nick in 2nd and Josh in 3rd again. Then it was a dry race and our pace was solid. Nick finished 4th and Josh 10th. Oh well. Can't say we're surprised. Then Nick got bumped up to 3rd and scored his second trophy of the year when one of the Team Kirov cars was penalised. 🏆
Then we went back to Tondela. Practice was fine, Josh being run on softs and I assume something similar for Nick, and then we went out for qualifying. The pictures shows that Nick Chu is in the car, but then the information on the bottom shows that L Holtz is in BOTH cars. I've never used that guy ever, and it's glitched out. I tried restarting the game, the computer, and I couldn't find anybody else with my problem online. So unfortunately I will have to start over again in Motorsport Manager. At least I think that's what I'll have to do. It has been almost a year since I played, after all.
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