A Slow February...

Where on earth has February gone?!?! It's 3 days until March - and less than two weeks before the first Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula One season!

It's been over a week since my last blog and it's high time I update you all (yes, all 0 of you readers) on the latest updates regarding my life.

In my last blog, I detailed the events of a very tough Bathurst 12hrs.

Saturday 11th - Sunday 12th February 2023

The weekend of the 11th - 12th February was a big one.

Aside from the obvious, Bathurst 12hrs, it was also the weekend that icon Whitney Houston passed away in 2012 - she may not be with us anymore - but just like Avicii, her legacy continues on - still to this day.

In more positive news - it was 1 Year since Luke Mitchell (friend of mine) started iRacing - he'd join Kabort a month later.

During this weekend, Alpha Tauri would also reveal their livery - which was very similar to last year's albeit a single, solitary red sponsorship.

I've done a review on the F1 2023 liveries in my last blog.

After Bathurst, Spencer (a driver racing for Kabort) asked me if I wanted to do an IMSA E race at Nurburgring GP (on Sunday) - and having nothing else on, I agreed

After he qualified a little further down, I enjoyed getting stuck in at the tail-end of the field and I was having an absolute blast until I got caught out by an incredibly slow-moving Merc (GT3) - just when I did try and overtake it, there was an LMP2 on my tail, and we all came to grief.

I always feel like - whenever I race - I have to prove something - that I'm not "crap", "shit", "a menace" or a bad driver - throughout my history, I've picked up a slightly unwanted reputation - and I almost have "double-standards" for myself to try and shake that - or when I do well, make sure I finish well.

Unfortunately the replay corrupted, but I pulled out to overtake a Mercedes at the same time as and LMP2 tried to overtake me. Spencer, my team-mate needed to finish the race, so from then on, he finished the race.

It was very annoying - as I got deep in the pack and felt I was competitive with the track/car combination - and the split was VERY competitive.

Ah well, that's racing.

After a very enjoyable start at Nurburgring (before things went tits up), I told Spencer, that I'd be more than happy to do a (dedicated) season of IMSA E with him - GT4's on Wednesday's, IMSA E on the Weekends - I hadn't done a dedicated endurance season since at least March 2020! (ELMS)

15/02/2023

Within a blink of an eye, half of February is gone - and half was still left to go.

Four F1 launches (including one on the 15th), one concert (George Ezra, London - didn't attend because I didn't have a ticket) and one valentines day later, it was race day for the...uhh - F4's? Formula D's? Formula IR-04's? The series I'm doing.

(F1 Reveals reviewed here: https://www.kabortmotorsport.com/post/february-fun-f1-livery-reviews)

Formula F4/D/IR-04 Oulton Park

Having experienced Oulton before in leagues and during Week 13, I knew I was in for one hell of a ride - Oulton is a legendary circuit with massive elevation, heavy braking zones and long straights - it's got everything a great circuit should have.

I certainly had pace during the open practice session - but could I transfer that into a race result?

10th in qualifying wasn't a promising start - but I knew that with my solid, but consistent pace, I should be able to shuffle up the order.

Surprisingly, it was a good, clean, civilised start made by all.

Starting Lap 2, I made a single position of the line, stepping into the Top 9. Now I just had to wait for chaos to ensue - and keep it clean myself.

Despite losing a position to the driver I overtook on Lap 1, chaos did indeed ensue - FOUR cars ahead of me crashing out over the course of a lap - two at turn 3, and a further two at the penultimate corner.

In the first incident, P7 ahead spun and was collected by P8 - giving me 7th.

The driver behind then overtook me

And in the second, P5 got wide onto the grass at the penultimate corner and lost control on the grass - P6 trying, but failing to avoid the spinning car ahead.

My job from here was simple: catch P5.

On looking back at the data - we were certainly in the same ball-park.

I stayed with him for a few laps, before I pushed too hard, lost the back end and had quite a scary (but low speed) save.

To add to my "woes", P7 behind also managed to nip past - but thankfully, a few laps later, P5 (the car I was ORIGINALLY trying to catch) learnt that three into one doesn't go, and I returned to P6 - staying there for the remainder of the race.

Off-line & moments before disaster... (blue and purple)

In the dying laps of the race (Lap 12) - P4 also had a spin after lightly touching P3 (who he was battling with). Despite losing one position (to P5), I was too far back to capitalise - but even still, I was chuffed at the result - and it was my best result of the season (in ANY series) - and best result since late December last year (almost 1 and a half months).

As a result, I gained a solid +49 iRating - and broke another personal best iRating of mine at 1499 iRating.

16/02/2022 (Did I seriously just do that?) 2023.

Onward from here, on the 16th Feb, Alpine was the final team to reveal their 2023 livery - as said before, I've already covered this in a previous blog.

Three days later pre-season testing would kick off.

Also on the 16th, I headed to Essex for a few days to help a friend and her relative.

Firstly though, I'd head to Surrey to see another friend of mine

18/02/2023

On the 18th, I went to Will's house to pick up a (budget) computer that I had previously bought.

My old one was already 10+ years old - and by buying a new computer (for less than £200), I could have a TON of new storage space, still access my old PC files - and run graphics a little higher.

Since I was there, we also fixed two of Timon's most "crippling" issues - a flickering rear number-plate light and the fact I had no rear washer fluid/couldn't wash my rear window.

Before I left, I ran my car through a car-wash.

All in all it was a very productive day (for us both) and a lovely time seeing Will.

19/02/2023

On the 19th, we all woke up at about midday, and only started getting grooving at 2pm. The only highlight of the day was a car-meet of no more than 10 mildly-modified cars.

It was also the day my parents headed out on a much needed holiday - must be nice to finally be able to go on holiday without having to drag everyone else along - it's been a good 20 odd years since they were able to last go abroad by themselves.

20/02/2023

Late February all got a bit messy.

To start off, on the 20th February, it was the second anniversary of the "birth" of the "Circle K" livery - on the rare occasion we field more than one car, usually we run the Circle K liveries in more than one colour (Green, Blue etc.)

I also remembered that Will left his diagnostics device in my car, so on the 20th, I finally remembered to bag it up in a jiffy bag and return it to him (via post)

21/02/2023

The chaos continued into another day as there was more parcel chaos.

This time Will sent a hard-drive reader to my house, but it arrived on the 20th (when I was returning his diagnostics device) - so had it rescheduled to the 21st.

Not wanting to miss this, I tried to board the first ferry of the day, and eventually arrived home at 6am.

On this day, I also had a Universal Credit meeting - and of course the parcel hadn't arrived by the time I had to go - but I knew, knowing my luck - the second I left it would arrive - so I hung around until it did.

Due to other stresses at the time, It was bin-day, but I was pre-occupied with other things.

The 21st - 22nd was the first night I spent at home (since my parents left for their holiday).

It was also shrove Tuesday, but not wanting to burn the house down, I decided against attempting a pancake or three. Pancake day can wait

(On writing this blog, this past week, I've had to edit every single date to 2023. Not doing well!)

22/02/2023

I've already done one race report in this blog, so I think another would be stretching it (not that I get any readers anyways...)

Alas, the final week of February will be it's own blog.