Bitten Heroes Grand Prix Engineering

Bitten Heroes GPE
Founded	WGPC 15
Founder(s)	Natassia Maud
Folded	WGPC 19 (merged into Eminent WGPC Team); WGPC 20 (ceased operations)
Base	Brax, Lisander
Team principal(s)	Juliano Lemos
Former series	World Grand Prix Championship; World Grand Prix Two; IOWCC; Formula Hodori
Noted drivers	Juliano Lemos; Darius Castellammare; Anneliese Devereux; William Archer

Bitten Heroes Grand Prix Engineering, often shortened to Bitten Heroes GPE or Bitten Heroes, was a racing team based on the outskirts of Brax, Lisander. It was founded before WGPC 15 by Maud Racing team owner, Natássia Maud, being headed up by Juliano Lemos and Carolina Lasseps, at sporting and technical divisions respectively, at the time of its closing. Bitten Heroes had a long-standing and close relationship with Lisander Autosports Board and Motorsport Lisander, being the sole WGPO license holder until WGPC 25, before its license was revoked.

On the verge of bankruptcy due to the involvement of its sponsors in a corruption scandal, Bitten Heroes GPE was sold (by a symbolic value) by Mrs Maud to the then-team driver, Juliano Lemos, at the end of WGPC season 16. Since then, the team has gone on to lease its WGPO licenses, as well as licensing the naming rights of the team to some teams in other series. After two years of developing an academy and leasing the Bitten Heroes WGPO license, Bitten Heroes, through its spinoff company, L3 Partners, bought X-PRO, formerly a joint venture between car manufacturers Camden and Harlean. With this purchase, Bitten Heroes GPE expanded its operations beyond its own cars, becoming responsible for the building of single-seaters for Lisanderian teams in minor categories, like IOWCC and the IBA World Cup of Motorsport. The last international endeavour of Bitten Heroes GPE was entering a Team Azhaar Pro Racing motorsports team in the International Open Wheel Car Championship.

Leasing and constructing ended up being the biggest sources of income for the team, before the sale of almost half of it to HRMN Ventures, a private investment firm that owns companies in technology, transport and materials. By the time of its closure, Bitten Heroes GPE was co-owned by L3 Partners (50.4%) and HRMN Ventures (49.6%). Its assets, employees and structures have been divided among several teams and companies.

World Grand Prix seasons

WGPC 15: First Season and the Timorian Revolt

Bitten Heroes GPE was founded by Natassia Maud, owner of Maud Racing, then a Lisanderian Formula 3 team (at the time, there was no WGP2), with the support of Seigen Mikado and Andrea Lanza. The team decided to go small as a privateer, selecting Juliano Lemos as the second driver and scouting a pay driver for the first spot. After the first test, Maud discovered Seigen had all probable drivers dismissed and was trying to bring Hodoran driver Sayono Souzare, whose style was similar to the driving style of his daughter, Shizuko. Seigen was fired and Maud signed up a last-minute contract with WET Motors, from West-East Timor. WET brought enough money to cover the remaining season costs and Mick Schramm as the first driver.

However, did not take long to Maud to notice Mick Schramm was a level below her own driver. The timorian was worse than Lemos in the first half and then surfaced rumours that WET Motors engineers had stolen Bitten Heroes technology for a future WET Motors WGPC16 challenger. At that moment, a clear split appeared in the team. WET Motors, represented by Maximilian Garnold, Schramm's head engineer pushed the fact of Bitten Heroes wouldn't have money to finish the season if they hadn't joined, while Maud countered with the fact that WET had promised the best driver of their nation, and probably, that was not Schramm. Amid this crisis, Juliano Lemos had a win, two pole positions, and some emotional and familiar issues and finished the season in 4th place. Schramm recovered a little and finished in the Top 10.

The future was quite promising. Bitten Heroes had secured a nice number of possibilities for the following months. Lemos would join the Arada team in Formula Hodori for a season. His bride, Ludwika Wiel, would helm the team in e-GP and Bitten Heroes would provide support for Team Ignis, a WGP2 Team. The e-GP never happened.

WGPC 16: Collapse

A strange and ominous silence fell over Bitten Heroes at the start of WGPC Season 16. The Lisanderian team cancelled the tests soon before the event. The team never presented the second driver in the preseason. In the first race in Eastfield Lodge, no second driver appeared and the car was incredibly pale. The media couldn't understand what was happening before an elaborate and kind of macabre ceremony happened days after. Due to the discovery of a corruption scheme involving the main sponsor of the team, Andrew Westgrens, the team had no money to fund a full team. Most of their money had been confiscated, their sponsors had fled, their assets were inaccessible and what they still had was in pawn after Eastfield Lodge Grand Prix. The team had been thrown into the eye of the hurricane of one of the largest police investigations into corruption in Lisander's history. It seemed that the Lisander government opened bids for the construction of public buildings and monuments. These bids were not advertised, and so the company indicated by a political was always the winner, offering the contract for a price up to 70% higher than estimated for the construction. This surplus was then divided as a bribe between the secretary's businesses and the indicated company. Westgrens Builders, one of these companies, used this bribe money to sponsor Bitten Heroes, thus laundering money.

What remained after Bitten Heroes collapse was only made available to drivers after getting princely lenience, yet, Bitten Heroes still had to deal with a passive corruption lawsuit. With the finances in tatters, Bitten Heroes only got a new contract right before the Grand Prix de Lisander, a value that barely made it to finish the season, but with the team stripped of anything that wasn't deemed essential. The forced savings made team results plummet. From the team that scored points in all but two rounds of WGPC 15, almost nothing remained, and Bitten Heroes only scored in two races.

The worst was the effect on the drivers. Both Juliano Lemos and Lourdina Westgrens had been diagnosed with depression. In the end, no one had the minimum condition to keep the team running, but Lemos made an effort, to buy the team in partnership with his bride Ludwika Wiel and Lourdina Westgrens. He set up a limited liability company named L3 Partners and bought Bitten Heroes GPE for a symbolic price of 5 Lis. Later that year, possibly due to public commotion generated, Bitten Heroes GPE was acquitted of all accusations of passive corruption and all assets were returned.

WGP2 II: Superia Juniors

Bitten Heroes were back to square one again. Unable to field and fund a WGPC team, and with its own mental health being an issue, Lemos decided to give it one last try at racing before retiring properly. It would also allow them to buffer a little money for the future. Bitten Heroes Academy was created, fielding two teams in lower categories. For WGP2, the team took the place that Maud had leased for Team Ignis in the previous season, with a respectable financial payment by Camden. In exchange for the support, Lemos leased the WGPC license for Camden for one season. Obviously, after the traumatic WGPC 16 season, Lemos quality wasn't the same anymore, so through the season, he went from first to the second driver, giving space for the rise of Darius Castellammare, a Camden-contracted driver in preparation for the following WGPC.

Formula Endurance: HEROES Academy

Lourdina Westgrens made a different way, going to Hodori's based Formula Endurance. Athan Lille, then a young driver from Maud Racing, was selected as her partner. The duo had some good results and Lille himself amassed two wins and three pole positions. Apart from those results, the team wasn't good enough to keep a consistent pace and Lille had three DNFs in the last three races.

WGPC 17 and 18: Leasing the License

For seasons 17 and 18 of the WGPC, Bitten Heroes had not yet recovered fully. In order to make cash, the team lease their license and operational structure for other local teams interested in racing at World Grands Prix. First, to Camden Automobiles, but it was a total disaster. Later, to TAS-Alliance, a self-funded initiative that managed a little bit more success. By season 18, Anneliese Devereux started to associate with Bitten Heroes GPE.

WGP2 III: Bitten Heroes Academy

For the first season of Bitten Heroes Academy, Lourdina Westgrens was kept in the first seat, despite being mentally unstable. To partner with her, the Fleftic driver William Archer was selected. The car wasn't the best, and there were a lot of DNFs By the end of the season, Archer finished sixth, with a win at the final race of the season, in the race of Nimbus. Lourdina finished only at the 18th place. That was the final season of Lourdina Westgrens in the World Grands Prix. Later, she decided to quit the team and turned herself into a WhoTube streamer.

WGP2 IV: Bitten Heroes - MW Academy

For this season, Lemos leased the Bitten Heroes license to his father-in-law, Marc Wiel, who then backed Lille in WGP2. He had some good results, scoring points in five races. Elise Shaw, from Krainin, joined as second driver, later being replaced by Lianna Rasianoara, a young female driver from Grand Merina. Rasianoara, backed by her father's building group, would later become a frequent driver for Bitten Heroes teams.

Joint Venture with Fireline

The team kept Anneliese Devereux from TAS-Alliance and started to focus on the development of the next contender for WGPC 19, which would seat both Devereux and Castellammare. However, the car never come close to the track, after WGPC advanced it would refuse Bitten Heroes signup due to a "lack of competitiveness". The way out of this problem was to merge Bitten Heroes' WGPC operations with Ethane's Fireline Motorsports, founding the current Eminent WGPC Team.

Post-WGPC

With the WGPC out of the plans and the entry of HRMN Capital in the company, Bitten Heroes GPE returned to the development of cars for the lower strata of the motorsport ladder with a new car. Based on the WGPC's previous specs, the HPR1 was considered a great value-for-money car, receiving a series of small adaptations in aerodynamics to meet the specifications of various series.

IBA World Cup of Motorsport

Under the request of RTL, the main broadcaster of the nation, and partnering with Camden Motorsport for the first time ever, Bitten Heroes GPE started to produce a car that would be used in the IBA World Cup of Motorsport. However, despite much anticipated, this season folded even before the start.

Lowering the standards to return to the action

Lending the name from Team Azhaar Pro Cycling, a cycling team partly held by HRMN Ventures, the team started to develop a car for the International Open Wheel Car Championship. For the seats, Rasianoara was kept, and another Academy Driver, Lukas Horsch, was promoted from Formula 3. The team was run by Bitten Heroes factory personnel while the upper echelon was devoted to Anneliese at WGPC. Horsch finished the season third, with a win in Kasandora and five podiums. Rasianoara finished twelfth, with her best race finish being seventh place in Mathorn. The result was deemed satisfactory, and the project was renewed for another season.

For the second season, IOWCC deemed the HPR1 as "too strong" and required them to down the spec once more, which raised suspicions of IOWCC officials favouring a certain rival team. Upset, but unable to cancel the contract, Bitten Heroes developed a new HPR2, that was in fact cheaper and slower than the HPR1. The discomfort was so great that even the HRMN decided to withdraw its sponsorship of the team. WinBets, a betting company looking to improve its corporate image, took its place. With Horsch refusing to keep for another season due to the imbroglio, and Rasianoara moving out to Camden, to race in the Aurunan Endurance Championship, the team had no one to accept such "inconvenient" seats. In the end, the first seat was handed to Arturia Nero, a protegée of Kimi Nasunen and its Saber Ironworks team, just returned from Formula Hinode. The second seat was offered to WGP3 Drivers, and accepted by João Valentim Dias, a veteran driver pushing for a last season.

During the season, the team struggled with distrust in the organization, but regardless of this Nero was always at the best of her level. However, a strange series of incidents involving the young pilot turned on the yellow light. When at Krbustan, Arturia Nero was knocked off the track by Luca Armstrong, she was still leading the championship. Her abandonment was enough to knock her out of the top spot. In the next and final race of the season, in Lisander (officially in Azhaar), again Nero was pressured off the track in the dangerous beach chicane of Kasandora, and crashed. Once again she was out of the points, and the opponent to whom the rumours pointed took the drivers' championship. Disgusted by what the media called "veiled favouritism", Bitten Heroes decided to drop the series permanently. Coincidence or not, the IOWCC folded after that exact race.

Retirement and liquidation

Before the WGPC 20 Grand Prix of Liventia, L3 Partners has announced the closure of Bitten Heroes GPE, and the dissolution of its shares and its estate in a number of companies/teams. HRMN ventures took the remainder of Team Azhaar Pro Racing and the former Bitten Heroes Centre. X-PRO shares returned to Camden Motorsport and Harlean Motors. Part of the structure and equipment was sold to Marc Wiel, father-in-law of Juliano Lemos and leader of MW Racing Academy, some assets went to HC Superbikes (owned by Darius Castellammare), and the rest was auctioned in favour of solving the tax problems of Motorsport Lisander, later FSA.

Complete WGPC Results

WIP. Results in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap

Season	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Points	WCC
WGPC 15	KB 01	X-PRO 001	Ajator		AEL	EFL	SJG	LIS	HDR	MTJ	NEK	ALH	TUR	ABL	KRY	VIL	AUD						138	4th
				Juliano Lemos		8	9	2	3	4	DNF	8	1	DNF	9	DNF	2
				Mick Schramm		23	8	DNF	2	13	DNF	DNF	5	DNF	3	13	DNF
WGPC 16	KB02	X-PRO 002	Ajator		TAE	SAV	HDR	ANM	EFL	NIM	VIL	VLK	ABL	LIS	NEK	VAN	MTJ	TKI	ESM	WET	TUR	AUD	12	13th
				Juliano Lemos	9	14	14	DNF	15	DNF	21	DNF	17	7	21	DNF	11	14	20	17	15	19
				Lourdina Westgrens						20	19	9	11	6	DNF	14	18	17	19	DNF	DNF	15
WGPC 17 (licensed to Camden Racing)	Camden N01	Camden W1	Stellenbosch		ESM	MTJ	TUR	HDR	LEN	MYT	SVJ	LIS	JNI	NEK	FID	DRA	ABL	VNG	NIM	VLT	FLC	AUD	46	9th
				Darius Castellammare	13	17/21/12	18	17	DNF	14	21	14	14	21	20	23	21	18	10	13	2	11
				Tabita Novax		*/16/23	8	5	DNF	6	24	4	DNF	DNF	11	28	14	15	8	18	DNF	22
WGPC 18 (licensed to TAS Alliance Racing)	TAS N01	Harlean W1B-V6	Solymok		XAN	SVJ	ESM	TUR	HDR	NIM	AUR	ABLf	ABLs	TWI	TWI¹	ISJ	NEK	FID	HAP	LEN	MTJ		26	11th
				Anneliese Devereux	10/1	12/6	6/18	7	17	21	21	15	20	21	8	13	11	16	7	20	16
				Niklas Schonbaum	13/14	4/11	4/14	19	19	DNF	19	22	14	20	4	15	18	21	DNF	2	23

* WGPC 17 Tests in Kopylov Internazionring, Mattijana were held for three days. Tabita Novax did not participate the first day.
¹: Twicetagria held a double round, with a testing day then a Race Weekend.

Bitten Heroes Academy WGP2 Results