The Racers

 

Gather 'round, and let me tell you the tale of the Racer Crew—a group whose very name has become legend in the dusty streets of Harley Dome. They live for speed, for the thrill of perfection in every turn, every jump, every wild ride down the warped roads of their strange world. But this crew wasn’t always just about the love of racing. No, they began with a dream—a wild, impossible dream known as the Exit Loop.

You see, in the moments just after The Incident sealed Harley Dome in its gravity-bent bubble, a legend named Jussi Valtteri made a split-second decision to try and race his way out of it. In a tale that is now a part of the very soul of every Domer, Jussi raced faster and faster, looping over and over again east to west until finally, he and his rally car disappeared. Many believe he had escaped via what is now called, the Exit Loop.

This belief lives on in the hearts of the racers, and from this dream of escape, the Racer Crew was born. They were the best of the best, a group dedicated to replicating what Jussi had accomplished. For years, they chased the Exit Loop, believing that speed and excellence in driving were the keys to freedom. But as the years passed and no one cracked the code, many began to doubt whether the Exit Loop was real at all. Still, the Racers remained. Even if the loop was a dream, the pursuit of it gave their lives meaning. To this day, they still believe that mastering speed—perfect, clean speed—matters above all else.

Now, among these legendary Racers, three names stand out. Let me tell you their story.

May Day "Mayhem"

First, there is May Day, known to most as "Mayhem." She’s the scrappy one, the underdog. A tall, lean figure with a wild blonde ponytail and grease always on her hands, May Day has no family left in Harley Dome—no rich inheritance, no stockpile of VHS tape like some of the others. What she does have, though, is her mind. Mayhem is a genius when it comes to rig design, always tinkering and tweaking, always finding new ways to squeeze every drop of speed from the machines she builds.

Her rigs are a sight to behold—patched-together contraptions made from standard system parts that somehow always run better than they should. May Day drives them hard, tearing across the desert in a style that’s more chaos than control, but the results speak for themselves. She’s a racer through and through, and while her rigs might break down more often than others, she’s always in her garage, rebuilding her dream from whatever parts she can find or borrow.

Her rivalry with Thorne Buckingham is legendary. The two can hardly stand the sight of each other. Thorne, with his endless wealth and flawless rigs, represents everything May Day despises. Though they'd each deny it, they are two sides of the same coin—both obsessed with speed and perfection, but where Thorne’s precision is cold and ruthless, May Day’s style is raw and wild, a force of nature that can’t be predicted. They push each other, always trying to outdo the other, and, truth be told, that bitter rivalry has made them both faster drivers.

But May Day isn’t without friends. Connor Clancy, the loud and lovable redneck of the Racer Crew, is one of her closest allies. The two often work side by side, and though their rigs couldn’t be more different, there’s a bond between them born of a shared love of driving and a desire to beat Thorne at his own game.

Connor Clancy

Now, Connor Clancy is something of a legend in his own right, though not in the way most Racers are. Connor’s a different breed—loud, funny, and a little too laid back for most of the tight-lipped, serious racers who strive for perfection. Where the others obsess over cutting-edge designs, Connor races in rigs that look like they’ve been pulled straight out of a junkyard. Most of his vehicles are based on old 1980s Ford trucks, built tough and reliable, with a suspension system that he swears is the best thing mankind ever invented.

He might seem like a joke, with his wild grin and his constant laughter, but make no mistake—Connor can drive. There’s a reason he’s a Racer, and it’s not just because he’s got the heart for it. He knows how to make those old, outdated rigs fly. And nothing brings him more joy than beating the serious, ultra-precise Racers at their own game with his clunky, patched-up machines.

Some folks in Harley Dome think Connor should have been a Freestyler, with his easygoing attitude and love for wild, unpredictable stunts. But deep down, Connor loves the purity of racing—the straight-up challenge of being the best, of flying across the desert and leaving the others in his dust. He’s not in it for the glory or the tapes. For Connor, racing is about freedom—about proving that you don’t need miles of tape or fancy rigs to be the best.

Thorne Buckingham

And then there’s Thorne Buckingham. If May Day is the heart of the Racer Crew, and Connor is its spirit, then Thorne is its cold, relentless engine. Thorne comes from money—a lot of money. His family lives in a mansion carved into the cliffs, and there are rumors that they have a hidden stockpile of VHS tapes large enough to fund a whole fleet of racers.

Thorne, like most of the Buckinghams, is easy to hate. He’s arrogant, distant, and seems to view the rest of the Racers as beneath him. But no one can deny that he’s skilled—incredibly skilled. Thorne’s driving is precise, almost surgical. His rigs rarely break down, and when they do, he’s got the resources to fix them with the best parts money can buy.

It’s rumored that the Buckingham family is tied to the Secret Facility—that they’ve been keeping it afloat with their wealth, and in return, Thorne receives more than their fair share of bespoke parts. Whether that’s true or not, no one really knows, and unfair piles of money and racing is a story as old as time. He might always be one step behind May's innovation, but he has a knack for stealing what she's designed and making it better.

Thorne’s driving style is ruthlessly efficient—no drama, no flair, just cold, calculated speed. Where others might take risks, Thorne plays it safe, relying on his skill and his machine’s relentless reliability to win the day. He doesn’t need to take chances because, in his mind, he’s already won. But for all his perfection, there’s a part of Thorne that’s denied a chance to shine. As a boy, he wanted to be a Freestyler, not a Racer. But his father pushed him into the Racer Crew, telling him that the pursuit of speed and precision was the only thing that mattered.

Thorne may be the best, but he races with a burden—the weight of a dream that was never truly his.

The Racer Crew’s Legacy

Today, the Racer Crew continues their pursuit, even as the legend of the Exit Loop fades. Most of the town no longer believes that there’s a way out of the bubble, but for the Racers, the dream isn’t just about escape. It’s about worth. In a town where tapes are currency and every second of recorded footage is precious, the Racers know that their legacy will be built not just on whether they escape the bubble, but on how well they raced while they were in it.

May Day’s scrappy genius, Connor’s laughter, and Thorne’s cold perfection all come together to form the heart of the Racer Crew—a group that may never find escape, but will always chase the thrill of speed, the purity of a perfect race, and the dream that somewhere, somehow, there’s something bigger just beyond the horizon.

And as long as they race, the legend of the Exit Loop—and the Racer Crew—will live on.