A Pretty Eventful Week...

Good afternoon, I hope you are all well.

Saturday 8th July, 2023

Saturday was a GOOD day and a thoroughly enjoyable one at that.

On Saturday morning I started off by taking the bins on the shop floor and separating them into cardboard and plastic (we have larger crates which are then processed by another company).

Later in the afternoon, I was re-stocking the milk section.

I told a fellow employee that I was enjoying myself – and an hour or so later, I was called up into the office – where I was asked if I wanted to do more hours.

I instantly accepted – I’d be paid for doing something I enjoyed doing – upping my weekly hours by 12 – and if I were to earn £11 an hour – that’s 12 x £11. That’s an incredibly healthy amount.

Sunday 9th July, 2023

Sunday is my “gruelling” day – finishing incredibly late.

After scanning a dozen or so items (to be replaced) – I then had to find (the scanned items) in the warehouse/back of Tesco – with no certainty of these items actually being in stock, this took a while…a long while – and quite a few products weren’t in stock.

My day had been shifted back a couple of hours (and I needed to catch up on work I had missed whilst trying to find the scanned items) – and I finished a lot later than I had intended – much to the worry of my parents – who had no idea where I was – or when I’d be returning home.

I definitely pushed myself over my own limit – coming home and feeling absolutely shit with a headache and extreme fatigue.

Monday 10th July, 2023

Monday began with a phone call to Universal Credit to tell them I’ve got a job and that I no longer need to have calls/go in to see them – whilst this means my benefits will stop – it DOES mean I can fend for myself and only have an income that I’ve earnt.

At work, Monday was a similar story to Sunday, but to a lesser extent and different task – by the time it got to 7pm, I was only just assigned a new task – 7:45pm rolled around – and I just knew I wasn’t finished and wouldn’t be home in time to make it for that evening’s FRL (Formula Racing League) race at Magney Cours.

The previous Monday, I prioritised FRL over my work – and it ate me up inside all week – so by doing two lots of late nights, I thought I could prove both to myself and those watching me that I was committed, I could finish the task – and I wasn’t prioritising anything over work.

In the end, all ended well as Klaassens stormed to victory, just as he had done at VIR and Road Atlanta.

Furthermore, TECHNICALLY, I was leading the championship by 1 point, but as I hadn’t signed out of the race, SimGrid gave me a 4-point-penalty for “no-showing” – a system that deters drivers from signing up – and then not racing.

Going into work at – an undisclosed time, my plan was to race at Magney Cours – I even bit the bullet and bought the track specifically for the circuit – and whilst at work, I leave my phone in my bag - as I had done all throughout school university – (removes distraction and temptation – and I don’t need it whilst I’m working…or so I thought)

By the end of the night, Klaassens had pulled a 3-point gap on me, and Cooper and closed the gap to just a single point – I’ve got to be on the ball with work if I’m going to make it home in time to save my championship challenge. With only 5 turning up (and 18 in the championship) – it’s very possible that one of the top drivers may face availability clashes too.

Next race is at Spa where the championship fight continues…or the fight for second.

Tuesday 11th July

Tuesday and Wednesday are (so far) my most enjoyable days of the week – only having to work from the morning to early afternoon.

I’d soon find out that I wasn’t just on dairy/milk duty – but restocking shelves in general – which was fine – it was like a mini-Christmas – carefully tearing into boxes, seeing what was inside – and if the shelves are already stocked, put it back.

I’d also do another round of milk-stocking and work on long-life (checking dates of long-life products

On Tuesday evening, it was the finale to QRT’s second season (LMDH VS Prototypes)…and it was a bit of an Anti-Climatic end.

Beside myself, Two Cadillacs (GTP’s) and two GT3’s showed up.

Ironically, the two GT3 drivers that attended were P1 and P2 in the championship…and myself..

The Top 2 were so dominant in fact that there was at least a 70+ point gap between me and P2 – even if by sheer LUCK I won at Silverstone, as it was the final round – and only 66 points were on offer, the best I could finish (in the championship) was 3rd.

And that’s exactly what I did. After an absolutely disastrous race from myself (featuring countless spins) I’d finish 3rd in the race (unsurprisingly) and finish 3rd in the championship with 187 points.

The irony continues as I finished 3rd in QRT’s previous championship (GT4 VS GT3) – From sitting in 13th at the end of Round 3 – to my second podium in GT3 class – was something I didn’t quite see happening.

Wednesday 12th July

After another good day at work, I’d come home and boot up iRacing – that afternoon, it was Zandvoort – a circuit I knew the rough layout of, but not the specifics.

But there was a difference! We’d be using the club layout – an average lap of less than a minute – the full circuit would allow for the pack to spread out and calm down – but on this Mario Kart-esk circuit – there would be no “spreading out”

At the end of a frankly hellish half-an-hour, I’d somehow finish 5th in class – my favourite finishing position finishing 5th at Oulton (R1), Watkins Glen (R2) and now Zandvoort (W5) – missing out on 5th in the top split races at both Long Beach and Mosport.

I’ll do a more in-depth blog in due course.

Thursday 13th July

Thursdays and Fridays are my new weekend – so I have to flip my week around – starting on Saturday (start of the working week) and ending on Thursday/Friday.

But today has been pretty relaxing with a successful driving lesson earlier this morning.