Maverick Speed Motorsports (MSM)

Description
Maverick Speed Motorsports is a current team on Finish Line Racing. The team is lead by Dominic Mako, and the co-leader is Retpetty. MSM offers nachos to its members, and the llama (l. glama) is the team mascot. The team serves the GMT -5 timezone.

Team colours: red and purple.

I. The Early Days of FLR: Fail Racing Team becomes Apex Addicts Motorsports
One could say MSM originally started life as another team, which began in FLR as Fail Racing Team, founded by our very own FailRacing himself. This team quickly grew into a sizable membership, spanning across North America and Europe. At the behest of the team leader, a list of new team names were submitted, and after a close vote Apex Addicts Motorsports (AAM) was selected. A quick livery competition was cobbled together, where the famous black and green dot version was elected the winner, designed by Dominic Mako.

The team grew to such a size that it was grouped into a North American and European contingents (with Australians stuck in the middle somewhere), with races to be organized by co-leaders for each side. The North American side was run by Dominic Mako, but unfortunately the European leadership was somewhat absent at the time. After a period, stoneco8 was able to take up the mantle a bit more successfully. And so this arrangement continued successfully, with casual races run on a regular basis, but no real organization for team specific races. The team's ultimate goal was to form a racing school as well.

II. AAM and the first FLR World Series
The first FLR World Series came along to give AAM a bit more direction for practice and tuning, where drivers like GibberMD were able to race successfully in A class with his Lamborghini and newcomers like awareofnow were able to successfully tackle B Class in his Subaru.

A dispute surrounding a collision during the A class race between one AAM driver and another team caused chaos though, and the result was catastrophe. By the end there were many angry posts, member bannings, multiple members of AAM departed FLR completely including the team leader. Entire teams also left the FLR league lock stock and barrel, as well as the league's admin.

III. An idea is born - A team fractures
After the fall-out of the FLR World Series, the league was left short a few teams. To fill this void, Dominic Mako and awareofnow, who had worked closely during the B Class FLR World Series as partners, decided to create a twin team to AAM that would allow for competition between the new team, dubbed Maverick Speed Motorsports (MSM), and the old AAM. Sadly, AAM dissolved very soon after, and all the former AAM members were left scrambling for a new home.

Most North American members were able to join MSM before a roster cap was in place. The European members, like Dubbl0HPeeetey and Zefff, that didn't qualify for the time zone restriction were able to create a new team called Team Europa Racing, and GibberMD was able to join the newly created Asia-Pacific Motorsport team, with a more Australian friendly time zone. Fit4Taking and other former North American AAM members also created Motion Control Engineering.

'''IV. MSM's first expansion'''

What was intended initially to be a small, tightly knit team, was expanded shortly after to accommodate large, organized weekly races. When the roster cap was raised, this would also give an opportunity for drivers new to FLR an option to join another active team. The organized races have since become a hallmark of MSM, which have been a proving ground for early success by drivers like Buldzjin and every improving drivers like Retpetty. The success of the team also brought back members who had previously been disenchanted with online leagues, and so FailRacing and Stevil1399 were welcomed back with open arms and new roles in the league and MSM.

V. A Wild Squad Appears!
After many racing series were completed, it became clear a handful or drivers tended to place in the top 3, while the rest of the grid struggled to keep pace. To help bring a more competitive balance, the team was split into either Red or Purple Squad via an ongoing hotlap competition. The slower drivers were afforded a racing handicap to provide a performance boost.

The first real test of this theory was in the MSM GT500 series. This 5 race series was dominated by the Nissan GT-Rs driven by CallMahDarkside (formerly NsaNeZiityyy) and I Drive The S5 (formerly 8Eleven), both of whom were Purple Squad drivers. This was also the first series to have the race summaries posted on YouTube rather than text write-ups.

VI. Room at the Top
Shortly after the GT500 series was completed, team founder and co-leader awareofnow departed the team on a Forza sabbatical. His tuning knowledge and friendly demeanor would be missed, but Retpetty stepped up to fill his role. Membership and participation lagged a bit, but things picked up just as the team began a couple Team vs. Team series taking on PLR and USAF.

In the series vs. PLR we became more closely acquainted with honorary MSM member Mako6669, who is also their team leader. MSM was able to win the races in impressive fashion using a custom painted Audi R8 (PLR's team car) by Retpetty. The next series, a four-door RWD showdown with USAF, introduced us to SoulTerror08, who was their co-leader. That exciting series concluded with some dominant wins by Dominic Mako and I Drive The S5.

VII. MSM Consumes the World
Prior to the final race versus USAF, it was known that team would be disbanding. Among other members, SoulTerror08 chose to join MSM, which has proven to be a great gain for the team. Also, another team that had been piloted by former MSM members disbanded, and so the roster grew quickly with new and old members again.

The increased team size has proven to be a boon, as each series started after that time have frequently involved full and multiple lobbies. This also has been true of the casual races that really build camaraderie among teammates. A new 2011 team championship was created to tie each series together with a point standings, which will color the future of MSM as the team continues to evolve and grow with the benefit of an active community of members.

VIII. Heavy Lies the Crown
The next largest and fastest team on FLR, known as Team Europa, challenged MSM to a final showdown. This would essentailly crown the dominant team in the forum. The two teams agreed to a set of rules and a four race series with four members from each team. Although EUR member Soulfire easily won the three races he participated in, the speed and consistency MSM displayed from top to bottom earned the most points and won the series overall.

Members

 * An Agile Llama
 * Atownstydown
 * Awareofnow
 * Bballswisher4
 * Buldzjin
 * CallMehDarkSide, recruiter
 * Dominic Mako, leader
 * Drizzin
 * FailRacing
 * Hillcrest34
 * HLR Rokk OTool
 * HLR VIOLATION
 * I Drive the S5
 * Oilfield Mafia
 * Rehab Jeff
 * RetPetty, co-leader
 * SoulTerror08