A Mediocre Month.

Kabort Motorsport
May 28, 2023
4 min read

Updated: May 30, 2023

Welcome back. Hope you are all well.

It's been a busy old month for me - so let's get straight into it.

8th - 14th May, 2023

With the exception of the iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours at the end of the week, it was a pretty quiet week on the Island.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I returned home from the mainland on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday, I only had my regular league race (QRT), followed by Universal Credit on Wednesday.

On Thursday, it was Round 1 of the VRG (Virtual Racing Group) GT4 League on iRacing - before final preparations went into Nurburgring on Friday.

iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours, 2023

As soon as I began racing the Aston Martin GT4 at Nurburgring, I knew that a the iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours in the Aston would be absolutely incredible - especially considering I finished in 3rd in the GT4 class in Round 2 of the Nurburgring Endurance Championship not the previous month.

After... "a breakdown of communication" Kabort would only be running one of two cars they planned to enter.

2023 is quite quickly becoming Kabort's worst year on record in terms of entries.

William Hunt was due to start in the second team, but decided to race with myself, Spencer and Mike Gerlica instead - making two Brits and two Americans.

The Race

Qualifying was probably the highlight of Kabort's Nurburgring 24 Hours - Will qualifying the team with an absolutely astonishing 5th place in class.

Will's opening double stint was nothing short of phenomenal - by Lap 11 we were in the Top 3 - fighting for the podium positions.

The 2023 Nurburgring 24 Hours was the first time any of us had attempted such a race like this in a lower class - and before long, the inevitable happened and impatient GT3 tried to overtake us through the last corner of Hatzenbach (heading onto the Hocheichen Straight, spun us around and so began the first of many knocks and bangs.

Will made it a whole stint before a GT3 knocked him out, I made it about the same distance before coming together with another GT3 - but seeing the next car quickly catching up to me/us, I hurriedly tried to get it back to the pits (instead of towing) and in the end - quite frankly - fucked the car up even more than it already was - resulting waiting in longer in repairs.

It was infuriating because I thought I really I got into a rhythm with the Aston driving in NEC (Nurburgring Endurance Championship) - but obviously not.

I feel like every time I go out on track, I have something to prove - that I'm not as bad as my name or my reputation says that I am - but the Nurburgring 24 Hours proved my reputation was right.

By sunrise on Sunday, we were done - we were falling so far behind that we would begin to become a hazard.

As they always say: There's always next year - and next year at least we know what we will be getting ourselves into - and practice starts early next year!

TLDR; Nurburgring didn't go great - with the exception of me, we all tried our very hardest and this DNF follows on from a pretty rough Daytona 24 Hour, Bathurst 12 Hours (missed Sebring) - something's telling me it's more to do with skill and not luck.

If there was any positive to pull out of that weekend, we kept fighting until both the car ahead and behind were multiple laps away - and even after the event - only one more GT4 retired, and two more GT3's retired.

Always the most fun event of the year - and something to sort for next year.

15th - 21st May, 2023

Mid-May struck. It's always the case that January and February are the longest months of the year and then March to May just whizz past at supersonic speeds.

I don't know how, but throughout May, my iRacing league count jumped from 2 to a rather worrying 5 - racing non-stop from Monday to Thursday!

Starting May, I was only racing on Tuesdays' and Thursdays' (QRT and VRG) but come the end of May I'd be racing in:

VM-BGTC (Monday 22nd May*) - Varano Motorsport British GT Championship

FRL iMotoring Mondays (Monday) (From 5th June)

QRT (Tuesdays) - Quantum Racing League

DML (Wednesdays) - Delta Motorsport League

VRG (Thursdays) - Virtual Racing Group

During the 15th - 21st May, I was concerned that my entire week would just be iRacing/League Racing and I wouldn't have time for anything else, but with all championships ending by July at the latest - and the QRT finale happening in late May, I was relieved to find out that it would only be temporary and life does go on.

On Friday, I'd have another very successful driving lesson.

In more recent news, the Varano British GT Championship was postponed due to lack of entries, which is a massive shame as my team-mate was all prepared for it!

Finally, heading into the final round of the QRT GT3/GT4 Showdown, I have a shot at the championship lead - my chances are second to none, but statistically speaking, I'm -42(ish) points off the championship leader - with 66 points to play for - and at Hockenheim, anything can happen.

My Week

In terms of my week between 15th - 21st, it was pretty uneventful - racing in leagues on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday 17th May, I had my Delta Motorsport League race at Phoenix Raceway - which turned out to be INCREDIBLE fun.

This was because despite missing the start (sorting fuel out), I managed to make a comeback to 6th place.

In Race 2, I finished 7th, in a slightly calmer race.

On Thursday 18th May, it was supposed to be VRG at Donington, but it was cancelled due to the organiser having real-life plans.

On Friday 19th May, I had another thoroughly enjoyable driving lesson.

As of 28th May 2023, here are my current championship standings:

QRT (Tuesday) (GT3/GT4 Battle Tour)

TBC (Championship standings are being counted)

3rd? (Only 3 GT4's showed up last round),

closed the gap to the championship leader (didn't show up)