April Anarchy!

Hello and good afternoon! I hope you are all well!

April has absolutely flown by! A month ago last week, I got locked out of my car and Timon had major repairs - I can't believe that tomorrow will mark exactly a month (to the day) since I saw Tom Grennan (live) in the Brighton Centre (definitely my favourite show to date!)

My last real-life blog came out two weeks ago, so it's definitely time for a little update!

March 2023

March was...certainly an experience.

Four weeks of absolute madness, chaos and headaches - from the MOT, to Devon, to two days of repairs/maintenance/servicing, straight into Tom's concert before my first proper job interview...and then it all stopped.

With nothing particularly planned, I took a breather between 21st - 23rd March, before a last spark of activity on the 24th - 27th to finish off the month (Ed Sheeran and driving down to Cornwall).

The 24th March would be the last time I'd see my friends in over a month (and counting)

March was supposed to end in style with two back-to-back job interviews, but one cancelled (the interview) and the other postponed it.

Back on the 22nd March, I had an opportunity to race (I had the time to) but as I was dedicated to IMSA E & IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (both on a weekend), I chose not to - postponing me buying the Renault Clio (the series I was beginning to eye up) until the following month

Earlier that same week, I had an interview for The Needles, but wasn't successful.

Also on the 27th March, it was two years since I discovered Tom Grennan.

To round out March - I had a double-header of interviews on the 30th and 31st March - but one interview was postponed a week (6th April) and the other was cancelled.

April 2023

On writing this, I've only just realised that I haven't been out (or on the mainland) all month - but that is about to change with an upcoming trip to Germany - which will of course have it's own dedicated blog.

1/04/2023

After exactly 30 days, on Week 3 of Season 2, 2023, I eventually return to iRacing and official racing - racing in the VRS Endurance Series at the Red Bull Ring - this "hiatus" being my 6th longest after:

1st - 23/01/2022 - 30/03/2022 (67 Days - University)

2nd - 4/10/2020 - 8/12/2020 (64 Days - University)

3rd - 22/08/2021 - 22/10/2021 (61 Days - University)

4th - 21/04/2022 - 09/06/2022 (50 Days - University)

5th 30/05/2021 - 11/07/2021 (42 Days - Summer W/ Friends)

6th - 2/03/2023 - 31/03/2023 (30 Days - Various activities)

It's fair to say, I was a bit rusty and didn't have too much practice prior - resulting in a few silly spins - but nevertheless, Dominik bought the car home in 23rd (after starting 37th) - with just a single incident point separating us from a disqualification! Top Work!

Whilst I'm on the subject, the 3rd April, 2023 marked a full year of me being 1.1K (1100) iRating or above - never once hitting lower than 1109 iRating between 3rd April 2022 and 3rd April 2023.

The next goal is to be over 1100 for a year - but having been 1100 in September 2022 - I have a fair way to go (in the year) if I want to have a September 2022 - September 2023 1200+ iRating streak.

Currently, here are my stats:

Races At iRating

1.5K - 4

Now I've reached the hard part - keeping my iRating above my current average.

It helps I've already surpassed 600 - 1.0K iRating (amassing in 113/200 races - over half.)

That weekend was also the Australian Grand Prix - which is a blog in of itself! But I stayed up (on less than an hour's sleep) and watched every lap live - what a spectacle I was treated to!

Though I think everyone wanted to see Alonso 3rd and Hulkenberg 4th!

3rd April, 2023

On the 3rd April, I went into our new summerhouse for the first time since it was built - and sat in a hanging chair - whilst on the phone to Universal Credit.

Yep - that was a highlight of my week!

4th April, 2023

(Last day I blogged, previous blog)

The only highlight was watching Villeneuve VS Peroni - a very touching documentary about the unknown rivalry between Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Peroni - and it was VERY well made.

It was also Round 1 of a Clio Cup league I am a part of.

All things considered - it went incredibly well - qualifying 11th/13th (okay, that bit didn't go so well) - but I finished 9th/13th in Heat 1

For the feature race, with the top 10 (results of Heat 1) being reversed, I miraculously found myself on the front row - 2nd place...this couldn't end well....annnnnnd it didn't.

I'd survive the first lap, but on lap 2, Craig Walters came up behind me, gave me an accidental nudge on the start finish straight and then I had a death wobble, wobbled onto the grass and on trying to rejoin (straight) and him trying to get a wide entry into turn one we banged doors and both were sent spinning.

I'd have quite the recovery drive to finish 8th place. This would be the last time RSE (The Clio Cup) would see a decent sized grid.

From there, the week would quieten down slightly - and I'd only have an interview for the Co-Op on Thursday (6th April).

6/04/2023

From Friday until Monday 10th, we were supposed to be heading off to Germany, but due to some personal circumstances, we delayed this by a week to start on the 19th April, 2023.

Tragic Triple Header Weekend

Coincidentally, that weekend - there was three - sorry four - series with car/track combinations which I was thoroughly looking forward to competing in:

1. VRS Endurance Championship (3hrs) @ Donington Park - DNF

2. Nurburgring Endurance Championship (NEC) - Round 1 - DNF

3. European Endurance Series (EES) (6hrs) @ Silverstone - DNS

4. ARL Formula 4 (League) - DNS

Since IMSA E was the previous week, this week it was the turn of IMSA Michelin Pilot Series - however this was at Mid-Ohio - and with every available slot taken by an endurance race - I UNFORTUNATELY had to miss the GREATEST race of the season...

The plan was to start off with the VRS Endurance Championship with Spencer (USA), race NEC in the afternoon/evening and EES on Sunday - unfortunately meaning that I had to miss yet another round of the ARL F4 League - leaving just 4 races left in the season - and one I'd have to skip due to a family holiday - I don't think I'll be competing.

On the subject of "not competing" - on the Friday before The Tragic Weekend - Lorenzo (who I was supposed to do EES with) informed me that his family wouldn't let him do the Sunday EES slot - resulting in two DNS' before the weekend had even begun.

VRS Endurance (Donington Park)

Donington located in the UK, Donington is already high on my "favourite tracks" list - since its a home race of mine - like Brands Hatch, it's also got massive elevation changes - but is very wide and flowing.

In all honesty - it wasn't a great race - I didn't even complete an entire stint before crashing out - and it was an incredibly embarrassing crash too.

An embarrassing crash which cost me 70 iRating - a big loss after a massive gain at the start of the year - certainly one to forget.

Absolutely rookie error - and one I won't be forgetting in a long time.

That said, I did go from 36th to 28th - so I can't complain about that.

Nurburgring Endurance Series (R1)

A new season of the Nurburgring Endurance Series/Nurburgring Endurance Championship (NEC) kicked off on the weekend of the 8th - 9th April.

After a VERY successful bid in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the finale of 2022's NEC (5th/12th in class), we decided to try our luck again (since we enjoyed it so much) - and - to begin with, it started very well - starting 10th in class - picking my way through the field into...well, I don't know, because iRacing doesn't display classes - but I picked my way through the pack for two stints, before Dominik got in with an hour to go.

He completed an entire lap before binning it the following lap at the corner after Fuchsröhre (Foxhole).

Admittedly, a BMW GT3 was giving him a lot of grief - but we were chasing down a Top 5 in class too - so very much between a rock and a hard place - we've got the pace to be competitive - now we've just got to nail down the consistency - with everyone going off - I'd like to hope a podium is one day on the horizon - but that's entirely in luck's/fate's hands.

10th - 17th April, 2023

This blog is already long enough - so I'm going to quick-fire through last week.

On this day, in 2021, I finished my most recent EES (European Endurance Series) race.

In addition to this, the 10th - 17th April, 2023 marked the 111st Anniversary of the Titanic sinking (1912).

Year on year, I find out more and more about the ship - what it used to look like and details about the sinking - and year on year, it fascinates me more.

3rd April - Titanic arrives in Southampton

10th April - Titanic leaves British waters for the final time - this being the last time many saw their loved ones - from Southampton, the ship next stopped off at Cherbourg (that evening)

11th April - Titanic made its final stop at Queenstown (now Cobh). From the 12th - 13th April, Titanic sailed without fail through calm waters - before the sinking happened on the night of the 14th/morning of the 15th April.

11th April, 2023

Following on from the 11th April, I had my weekly league race for RSE (Clio Cups). The league went from (excluding myself):

12 drivers at Round 1 (Brands Hatch) (04/04/2023)

6 at Round 2 (Barcelona Short) (11/04/2023)

4 at Round 3 (Hungaroring GP) (18/04/2023)

(N/A Round 4 (Silverstone GP) (25/04/2023)

Fortunately for all racing, it was just a quick 30 minute race - and somehow, I got myself into a very exciting little battle towards the end of the race - finishing just 1.4 seconds behind the driver (I battled).

14th - 16th April, 2023

Despite only participating in one race - it was a very fun weekend - on Friday night (14th - 15th) I stayed up all night to watch an animation of the sinking of the Titanic - which was synchronised with the timing of the real one - it was absolutely fascinating, and sombre at the same time.

A massive thank you must go out to the team at Titanic: Honor And Glory for all their hard work on the animation and game of the same name.

On iRacing, that weekend it was a street-circuit double-header (short for double-headache-r) VRS Endurance was at Belle Isle and IMSA Endurance was at Long Beach.

From there, the weekend sort of crumbled - after staying up pretty much all night watching the Titanic Animation - I was pretty tired and needed a few hours sleep - that evening didn't work either as I had a Silverstone Multi-class Hosted race.

And Sunday was reserved for Spencer if he wanted to do Belle Isle.

Just an hour into what would have been the race, my power went out (having work on the house being done) - so I call that a very lucky miss.

16/04/2023

At 4am on Sunday morning, my team-mate Spencer let me know "Ok, 100% out, stuffs to do, sorry brotato"

So, Sunday was going to be a rather lazy affair - with pretty much nothing going on.

Then out of nowhere, at 5:35pm, Spencer messaged me

"Still around? I have 0 practice but would be able to make the end of VRS E"

With the race starting at 17:00 GMT (6pm BST) - I launched the car out of the trailer - fired her up - and was ready to race.

I suppose it was pure luck that I had race Belle Isle not two months before this - so it was pretty fresh in my head still.

	IMSA Endurance (25/02/2023)	VRS Endurance (16/04/2023)
Split	2/2	2/2
Strength Of Field (SOF)	​1805	1628
Qualifying Time & Pos.	13/16th (Class) 1:32.263 (TRU)	​27th/35th 1:32.433 (TRU) (+0.2)
​Incident Points	​6x (4x got hit from behind)	0x
Start Position	​13th (Class)	​27th
Finish Position	12th (Class)	​16th* (w/ Disconnect)
Fastest Lap (Race)	​1:31.640	​01:30.575
Average Lap (Race)	​1:34.540	​1:33.140

All in all, it was a thrilling race - to go from 27th to 16th was pretty darn special - even with Spencer disconnecting during his stint.

Lap 1 was absolutely crazy - going from 27th to 23rd. Early on, I had some pressure from the cars behind - and whilst letting them past may have seemed foolish and dropped be back to 27th (where I started) - my consistency seemed to do the trick - and eventually, as the race wore on, I made positions from other people's mistakes - the pit-stops being the best time to make up positions.

Miraculously, despite Spencer losing his internet connection - and us having to wait for 1 minute of towing - we only lost one position - and made it up to finish a stellar 16th place - if this is the standard for the season - I'm excited for what's to come!

Me missing out IMSA E means that IMSA E heads into Week 4/6 - leaving just 3 races to go left in the season with a rather big clash in the final week.