The Rise of Altruras (Article)

**The Rise of Altruras** is an article written by 2016 ESPLAR Elite Series champion Lean Campana and published through KATR-09.

(Work in Progress)

## Article

What many people do not know about Altruras is its dedication to motorsport. In the past, many Altruran residents were always glued to their televisions and watching their good old highlights from back in the day. That's before other sports like basketball, hockey, baseball, football, American football... they all became major powerhouses in regional society in the early 90s.

The trend of Altruran motorsports started before the Great Rust Belt began to decline in the late 1960s - early 1970s. The business-friendly Democratic governor of Altruras began to increase efforts to attract auto manufacturers to the archipelago, most notably Ford and Chevrolet, the latter of which was a part of General Motors. The Altruran auto industry boomed in the period following a great victory by Californian driver Edward Morson in the 1968 Great Plains 600 in North Dakota. By the time the first Evanshire Super Pro League of Auto Racing season began, the islands of Evanshire, Altruras, and Laronia became the biggest auto manufacturing islands in the archipelago.

It is interesting to point out that all three of these islands would not have become such incredible industrial heartlands without the help of a certain southern Californian company known as Anaheim Industries. They take their name from the city in which they were based in, Anaheim, California. This company is not really well known outside of California, but initially they started as a parts manufacturer for General Motors. When the company moved to Altruras in 1975, they decided to partner with ESPLAR in manufacturing safety equipment for drivers and pit crew.

What no one knows about Anaheim Industries in their early history was that they were easily biased against having their parts manufactured outside Altruras, namely Japan, which were the biggest industrial power at the time. Anaheim fears that they would have to pay excessive fees to Japanese manufacturers that made these parts for Anaheim. Take it this way: most parts for Anaheim were made of material that has to be exported over to Japan for assembly. Then those are exported to Altruras. Add up the cost, and it could have taken a big toll on Anaheim's purchasing and bargaining power. Thus they took the initiative and convinced ESPLAR to use US made products (which cost less in their perspective) as a way to keep operating efficiently. It worked, and Anaheim Industries became a major industrial power within a decade.

But how does Anaheim Industries fit into Altruras' motorsports trend?

It's more complicated than everyone says.

Anaheim Industries directly supported multiple ESPLAR teams during the early years of the sport, most notably Hennivan Racing. Hennivan was arguably the best team throughout the 70s and Anaheim was determined to keep Hennivan's championship run going. Except like Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, Hennivan's run had to end somehow. In 1977, a little-known team known as Mylo Racing won the title seemingly out of nowhere after Hennivan Racing had bad luck at that year's Evanshire 600. Mylo Racing knew exactly was Anaheim was doing. The company directly supplied Hennivan with more durable and reliable parts than the other teams which gave Hennivan an advantage over them. This drew some Hennivan fans away from the team and into the rising star of Mylo Racing. Anaheim Industries denied any wrongdoing but lost a lawsuit filed by Mylo in early 1978. The ruling changed the entire series forever.

In a move designed to help improve the quality of ESPLAR racing as a whole, the series mandated that parts be inspected for cracks and/or any issues that might hamper racing quality. Sure these parts were not guaranteed to be perfect in any way but at least the racing battles would not end prematurely once something happens. The racing managed to improve throughout the late 70s and early 80s and resulted in some of the most exciting championship battles ever in series history, including the 1979 Evanshire 600, where James Stewart ended up winning the championship by winning the race. Such feats were not repeated until Julia Truong won the 2018 Evanshire 700 as a rookie, and also won the championship as well.

Anaheim Industries would remain with ESPLAR as long as they exist. But they did find themselves in hot water at some point in their contemporary history.