A Tough Start To The Year (Pt. 1)

Good afternoon! I hope you are all well!

TL;DR - It's been a tough ole 5 months for me on iRacing.

~

April 2022

It's over a quarter of the way into the year and with April flying by, I sat and wondered - one month ago - no, one year ago, at this very time where was I? What was I doing?

It was 9th April, 2022 and I was still feeling the effects of an absolutely BONKERS Nurburgring 24 Hours - in which we led 26 laps before a fatal blunder.

October 2022

Later that year, in October, me and Dominik would try the Nurburgring Endurance Championship Finale in an Aston Martin GT4 and have a whale of a time - the top 6 (in class) all ending up in the pits - with such success (5th in class) - we knew we would have to exploit our talents further in the coming NEC Season - which started in April 2023.

December 2022

By the end of the year, we'd get the next year's special event calendar (NEC Calendar came later) - and it was all a bit...bizarre.

January to March was as normal - Daytona (12hr), Bathurst (12hr), Sebring (12hr) kicking off the year with one special event a month - but then the Nurburgring 24 Hours appeared in May - all the more practice - but it does sort of ruin the "flow" of one special a month.

Although saying that, May was already ruined as both the Indy 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours were both missing due to - ironically the same company - using an exclusive licence to rob iRacing of two much-loved special events.

2023.

I'll be honest, 2023 hasn't exactly gone...to plan.

Starting Season 1, 2023 back in December - I was very excited - I was starting a new (iRacing) year, new season, new me - and a new car.

The first two races went astronomically - starting as one of the lowest iRating cars on the grid - I managed to steal a podium (3rd) in the opening round at Rudskogen and 5th at Long Beach (Week 2).

From Week 3 in late December however, everything sort of... fell apart.

After gaining over 100 iRating in the first two races, Monza - like the other two, started well...before this happened.

Despite the fact that the impact didn't end my race in of itself, I lost significant time and was eager to get back the time lost - and unfortunately upon entering Ascari, I took the same line and braking point as I would (had I had no damage) and...well, the inevitable happened.

Usually at this point, I'd retire from the race - but with 1466 iRating - I didn't want to lose all the massive progress I had made - I ended last season with 1316 - and by three races in, I had made about 150 iRating - and a retirement could massively slash the progress I made.

So I jumped into the spare car and made up as much time (and positions) as I could.

Had I retired then and there, I would have finished 18th, but by just doing laps, I managed to finish 14th - only picking up one position on track.

I guess...the guilt is catching up to me - Usually I would have just taken the -84 iRating on the chin (18th place iRating loss) due to being over a lap down and having nothing to race for - but I suppose part of the learning process is to fight for every position - even if you're not fighting for the lead or the lead lap.

In the next two races, I'd visit the pits - and it's at this point I'm wondering - "Do I deserve to be 1.4K?"

The more races I do, the more accurate and fine tuned my iRating will become - and as long as I'm competitive, iRating is very much a number I care too greatly about.

From here, the season didn't progress any better.

W1 (Rudskogen) - 3rd - No Issues W2 (Long Beach) - 5th - slight wall tap, but miraculously, no damage

W3 (Monza) - 14th (Lowest: 18th) - Accident as shown. Took fast repairs, fuel and tyres

W4 (Bathurst) - N/A (Paris Holiday)

W5 (Catalunya) - N/A (Not Home)

W6 (Okayama) - 10th (Lowest: 16th) - Involved in someone else's accident. Unselected fuel & tyres - forgot fast repairs - drove around with wonky steering

W7 (Road Atlanta) - N/A - Not Home

W8 (Montreal) - 10th (Lowest: 18th) - Got terminal damage due to a netcode hit, left the pits in 18th - but due to the CRAZY race it was, I managed to sneak home in 10th.

W10 (Oulton) - Somehow escaped needing to pit and finished 6th - my first time in the Top 9 positions since December (63 days - this being Mid-February)

W11 (Road America) - Not a favourite circuit of mine - but I finished an absolutely amazing 5th place - I WAS 4th for a moment before I messed up the final corner and lost all my momentum and the position.

W12 (Hungaoring) - Unbeknownst to me, this would be my last race in a month - and for a season finale, it was an absolute classic - the average driver in this split was 2.5K - for the first time in my life, I was in Top Split - so to finish 10th amongst drivers MUCH better than me was truly a proud moment.

Following this, I'd disappear for 30 days

Other Races

Aside from F4/IR04/Formula D, I also did 3 special events and two IMSA Endurance races.

ROAR Before The 24

14 Days into the year, half-way into January, I made my iRacing debut for the year at the ROAR Before The 24.

Just like last year, I started practicing the night before the race (peak strat!) - however this year I opted for the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 over the McLaren GT4 (the Aston only came out in March 2022).

Once again - I made a crucial mistake - sorry - TWO crucial mistakes which costed me extremely dear.

The ROAR Before the 24 was absolutely a "zero to hero" sort of story - I had the 5th lowest iRating in a grid of 48 cars - so to be sniffing out 24th within just the opening laps was absolutely insane to me - but it wasn't to be.

I pushed too hard, touched the back end of a BMW and was spun around - falling to 35th - all my hard work completely undone in just one corner.

By the end of the stint, I was back up to 22nd - but unbeknownst to me, I was going to have to do it all again.

I missed my pit-box and had about 0.6 liters/gallons left in the tank - certainly not enough for one lap - but somehow, by short shifting, lifting and costing and driving very slowly, I crawled back and managed to find my pit-crew man.

I left the pits in 29th and finished 16th - just like if I hadn't run over the cone the previous year, it did eat me up inside about where I would have finished had I not had those two incidents - In 9 months I will find out.

Fuck my birthday, Christmas, New Year - I want to have another go at the ROAR Before the 24!!!

iRacing Daytona 24 Hours

(In Class):

22nd --> 13th

I have a literal curse on me at Daytona.

Between 2020 (Kabort's first Daytona 24 Hours) and 2023 - I've only finished one, single Daytona 24 Hours - and that's this year's.

2018 - Didn't know about iRacing/wasn't interested

2019 - Had iRacing, Didn't have licence

2020 - DNE (Driver registered for wrong team)

2021 - DSQ (Driver reversed up pit-lane)

2022 - DNF (Driver didn't get in after my stint)

Even still, the Racing Gods got a good laugh out of me when my car was involved in a shunt at Turn 3 on Lap 1 - this putting us three laps down. To just pick up the stragglers - it gets to you - it's tough to know that a Top 10/Top 5 is highly likely off the cards not an hour into the race.

iRacing Bathurst 12 Hours 2023

26th --> 25th

New month, new special event - same old story - once again we were caught up in a Lap 1 shunt/pile up, lost three laps, and - quite honestly - weren't really in the running.

After a faultless opening stint from me, I ended my second stint - still mostly clean (x2 off-tracks, x1 car-contact).

I was so close to finishing my last double-stint of the race.

As before, I put in a flawless/faultless first stint, and then in my second and final stint - on my final lap into the pits, I get a wheel onto the kerb at skyline and pelt it into the wall at full speed.

I guess, I'm just glad we weren't leading - and instead hugging the back of the pack - being one of the last runners.

IMSA Endurance (Nurburgring & Belle Isle)

On the Sunday of Bathurst Weekend, Spencer asked if I wanted to do some IMSA Endurance - to which I agreed and we agreed a date - and agreed to meet at the Green Hell (GP).

Loving the chaos of the start, I opted to start - and kept us solidly in the Top 40.

All was going seemingly well - until Lap 33 - when I attempted to overtake a VERY slow-moving backmarker who - admittedly, was giving mixed signals - at the very same time I tried to overtake the Mercedes, an LMP2 had the exact same idea - and we all came to grief - us falling to 43rd and stone last (of the runners).

We'd be able to salvage 38th - but it was yet another race to forget.

A fortnight later, we'd try IMSA E again - but again come into grief when we were rear-ended by a competitor.

Kabort hasn't seen all too much success recently - Season 1 has seen Kabort's poorest entry on record - just two a piece at both Daytona and Bathurst - and a sole entry at Sebring (as I wasn't available to race that weekend)

Credit due, where credit is due - we do have some talent, and they did finish 4th place in LMP2 class - which is incredibly strong going.

April 2023 (Season 2, 2023)

On the 1st April, I made my return to iRacing - after an impressive 30 days away.

The plan was to run a IMSA combo - the Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA Endurance Series - and (ironically enough) - as of Week 2/6, I'm yet to do either!

In fact, on my second weekend back (week after my return after a month) - I organised to race in every single endurance series available - with the exception of IMSA E.

By the time I returned from my "hiatus", EES (European* Endurance Series), IMSA E and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge had all been to Sebring - and The Sebring 12 Hours had also gone and passed - in addition to a favourite combination of mine - VRS E at Imola.

Now. About that debut...

On my return, I had the choice of racing IMSA E (chosen series) at Magney Cours (FRA) or the VRS Endurance Series at Red Bull Ring (AUT) - having already shelled out (recently) on the Renault Clio - I wasn't totally sold on buying Magney Cours - or well, at least just yet.

So Red Bull Ring it was.

It was very much a bitter-sweet affair - and was yet another race to forget.

I qualified 37th and then proceeded to cut my way through the field - making it to 30th before envietably spinning out.

I'd rejoin in 36th - and get to 30th again before doing the exact same thing, just spinning at a different corner.

This time, I'd get to 26th before needing to pit.

After falling to my favourite position, I'd have a fairly clean* (*without spins) run - only picking up enough incident points for a penalty.

By the time Spencer got in, he had less than 5 left before being disqualified. I had given him quite the task - but somehow he bossed it leaving just a single incident point to spare.

Judging by the results, many others were right on the DSQ limit too - but it was certainly a messy one from me.

The next day, Sunday marked an entire year of being above 1.0K iRating (from 1.1K+)