My 2022 Year In Review

Prologue

Having metaphorically landed on The Isle Of Wight on the 19th December 2021, moved furniture in on the 20th (the same day as an assignment), I had less than a week to process everything around me before Christmas hit.

A further week later and 2022 was upon us – In all honesty, I wasn’t ready – the Christmas period is meant for family, relaxation and love – but with so much going on – it was quite frankly, quite stressful.

I planned to have everything (yearly round-ups etc.) done and dusted for the new year, so I could leave everything in 2021 and start 2022 new and afresh…but that didn’t quite happen.

At about 10 midnights to midnight or so, I'd come downstairs to watch the new year fireworks, but immediately after, I head back upstairs and continue with the remaining pieces of work I had left over from the previous year.

It may seem petty to get so flustered over something so simple, but I think I absolutely hit the nail on the head in my New Year’s Blog:

“I don't know, going into a new year with a back-log of quite a few things from the previous year is a bit disheartening and like "you say I'm going into a new year, but this honestly feels like December 32nd - and the only thing I'm celebrating are these fireworks.”

January

Midnight. A New Year, A New Beginning and a new me – another chance to shape myself, into the man I wanted to be. Most are jolly during this time, I was not.

Some may say “you should have started these sooner” – but two weeks prior, I was still at Uni – during which we had no internet, hot water or indeed furniture.

I simply hadn’t the time to write a Year In Review or do "Kabort’s Year In Pictures."

Moving out is stressful. You’ve got 6+ different groups of people you’ve got to keep in check and happy - and during the whole move, each of the six are at completely different stages.

Moving from a rather traditional two storey detached house to a farm courthouse-like building was certainly a change that certainly took a while to process.

1. “The Buyers” (of our old house)

2. Their Estate Agents

3. “The Sellers” (of our new house)

4. Their Estate Agents

5. Us (Selling our house, buying a new)

6. Our Estate Agents

The first week of 2022 was quite tough. (mostly due to iRacing - and still adjusting to the new house).

For the first time in my iRacing career, New Year's Day fell on a Saturday - race-day for the VRS Endurance Championship.

In short, it didn't go well - ending the very first day of the year in a retirement.

(More on that here:

https://www.kabortmotorsport.com/post/a-very-merry-ish-christmas-and-a-happy-ish-new-year)

As a result, I fell to my lowest iRating of the year, 934 iRating.

As January wore on, things slowly started to improve.

On the same day as my 3rd iRacing Anniversary (13th Jan), I also had my second assignment of the year – now being sort of in the groove of things at my - (sorry, our!) new house, I pumped out an assignment and it turned out to be the best piece of work throughout my ENTIRE university stint.

Despite a poor start to the year (on iRacing), there were also moments to be proud of too - such as a 4th place in a GT3 Challenge race at Philip Island (AUS) on the 5th January, and another 4th two weeks later at the "ROAR Before The 24" special event on the 15th Jan - ROAR inspiring me to try the McLaren 570S GT4 for a season later on in the year.

I truly believe, had a cone not got stuck under my car, I could have been in contention for a podium - the first special event podium of my career!

Even still, the result pushed me back over 1000 iRating - and I haven't been below 1060 iRating since!

Later on in January, I turned 21, and got a pleasant 5th place at Sebring on my birthday - result!

Following this, I tried to go onto the mainland, car made weird sound, and accidentally discovered a Supercar dealer/workshop ("Hills Prestige")

My last race before heading off to Uni was the Daytona 24 Hours, and just like the 5 years (and 3 practice races in 2022 prior), it was another non-finish.

Robin's iRacing Daytona 24 Hour History

2018: (DNE) Didn’t have iRacing

2019: (DNE) Didn’t have licence (Rookie) (Wasn't aware of the event)

2020: (DNS) - Didn’t Enter (driver got registered to wrong team)

2021: (DSQ) – Fellow driver reversed up pit-lane

2022: (DNF) – Lack of morale? I don’t remember what happened, but nobody got in after my second stint, and someone only got in two hours from the end of the race.

Always next year…

Following this, I'd break my personal record for the longest period without an iRacing race at 67 Days (2 months and 1 Week), only returning the week before half term on the 1st April, 2022.

Whilst nothing OVERLY exciting happened, I blogged every moment on www.kabortmotorsport.com/blog (feel free to read another time).

February

Whilst at Uni, it was business as usual – the weekly shop, the daily lectures, the mundane every day.

A friend from my second secondary school joined iRacing - which was quite the surprise, as I knew he was interested in cars, but only really had a karting friend (Tom Wallace) on the service that I properly knew - so it was nice to know someone shared my relatively new-found hobby/passion and I could share it with him.

Late February also marked the First Anniversary of the Circle-K liveries (up until late 2022, this was the main Kabort design/livery)

It was the start of a new era at Kabort...

It was very much rinse and repeat until April (obviously with assignments and such in the middle) – but something was afoot.

We all know what happened on the morning of the 24th February, 2022 - and as much as this "Year In Review" is about me, the events that occurred that day - and yet still continue to occur 10 months on, are nothing to do with me.

It was a coin flip. Chance. Luck. I've done nothing to deserve to be born in the UK and it's absolutely terrifying to think that one moment I could be sitting in my rig - in the middle of an intense iRacing battle or writing a blog and the next I 'm in the hospital, my house blown up, my arm missing, my parents dead.

That's all that needs to be said.

My deepest thoughts and condolences go to every last person effected by the thoughtless, heinous and unspeakable crimes that are taking place to innocent people, just trying to live their lives.

March

In March, it was 1 year since I started following/supporting Tom Grennan, and two years since…a lot happened (a bloody tough month).

April

Yes, I’ll admit, things did happen at Uni, I did attend lectures and I headed to Essex, Surrey and beyond now and then, but this review is already over 5000 words, and the more important and exciting things happened once I was free of the Wolverhampton walls.

Coming into half term, I did a "challenge" I invented called "The Living Hills Challenge" – driving to the highest point in each County I had lived in.

It was very close to call - Essex being behind a gate - and had I spent any longer at Leith Hill (Surrey's highest point) I would have missed my ferry home!

As I returned home - I had a big decision to make: Which (iRacing) Series Next?

I had already done 4 Seasons of the GT3 Challenge (driving the Lamborghini Huracan GT3) back-to-back, and I felt it was time for something new...

1) The Full-Length Formula One Grand Prix Series (NEW Mercedes W12 2021 F1 Car)

2) The Production Car Challenge (Ford Mustang)

3) IMSA Michelin Pilot Series (NEW Aston Martin Vantage)

4) GT4 Falken Challenge (NEW Aston Martin Vantage)

5) GT3 Challenge

6) Porsche 911 Cup??

After using a process of elimination, I decided to race in the GT4 Fixed Season in the newly released Aston Martin Vantage GT4 and had a whale of a time.

My reasoning for not racing the full-length series was:

1) Custom liveries were prohibited on the new Mercedes W12 (Mercedes' ruling) meaning that there would be no realistic liveries - destroying the authenticity of the series

2) There was not a limit of 20 cars per split.

3) The amount of FIA Grade 1 circuits did not make racing in the series worth it.

---------------------------------------------------

After I tested the Ford Mustang (FR500S) in the Production Car Challenge, I quickly found out that the popularity of Mustang class was absolutely pitiful.

With only a handful of Mustang drivers, I was guaranteed Top-Split every race - racing against the best of the best in the Production Car Challenge - drivers with thousands higher iRating than me. The fact it was open setups (as opposed to fixed) was the final straw. (I'm not subscribed to any "setup shops" or setup makers)

During this time, I also participated in the iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours, which I had the honour of starting and avoiding a HUGE pile-up, resulting in us being in the running for the lead later in the race.

From 19th on the grid, we fell shortly to 21st, but following the pile-up and many damaged cars, we only rocketed up the field – my double-stint taking me from 19th (or 21st) to 8th (15th at first stop).

On his iRacing endurance debut, Luke Mitchell (my friend from school), took us from 6th to 2nd and kept the car there.

Following Luke was Spencer Kemble (USA), who did the honours and took the lead - leading 8 laps of the 2022 iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours for Kabort Motorsport.

Following Spencer's double stint, I then led almost an entire stint (6 laps) before handing the car over to Luke again who led for a further 10 laps before…

Our luck run out. After a total of 26 laps in the lead, fate gripped us, and gripped us tight.

On turning into Swallowtail (Schwalbenschwanz), Luke got a wheel on the grass and clouted the barrier – ultimately brining our race to an end. He was hugely apologetic, but that’s just how racing is sometimes.

For an (iRacing) debut, to be chucked into the deep end - straight into the Nurburgring 24 Hours, without any "easing him into it", he did miraculously well.

But as they always say: Onto next year!

Luke continued on to do two more endurance races with the Kabort Crew (IMSA Endurance at COTA and a 24 hour race at Road Atlanta, picking up a Top 15 in the LMP2 on both occasions, although would vanish for Spa 24 as we simply weren’t running the car he was after (BMW). He’d return to us in August, finishing 14th at Road Atlanta.

~

April (Continued)

I’d have one more GT4 race before heading off to Germany to see my Grandmother between the 14th – 20th April.

The Germany trip was an incredibly memorable one – leaving the UK for the first time since the Pandemic, driving my first miles and Kilometres in mainland Europe (other side of the road) and completely losing myself staring at a large fire.

"Osterfeuer" ("Easter Fire" in German) is a symbol of light in the Darkness - and it's just what I needed.

It’s funny how we can both lose ourselves and find ourselves whilst watching mother nature at her most beautiful – waterfalls, beaches – fires just being as simple as heat, oxygen, and a flammable material – yet so destructive at the same time.

For the first time in my life I had to be dragged away from an event as opposed to dragging my parents away from events. I also saw my grandmother for the first time since at least 2019 – which was incredibly nice, and as she ages, I don’t know when the last time I’m going to see her is – but I do hope I get to see her again, be that in 2022 or beyond.

I headed back to Uni/up north after this – the only thing to report here was finishing 4th at Barber Motorsports Park. My first podium of the year wouldn’t come until October (6 months on).

Following this trip, I’d head back to Uni until the 24th May – on the same weekend (returning to Uni), I’d see my second ever concert: One Republic - which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Prior to seeing One Republic, I had only been to one concert beforehand - Tom Grennan in September 2021.

It's weird - despite being more popular, I didn't enjoy myself as much as at Tom (Grennan)'s concert.

As he (Tom) had released fewer songs, I listened to them more times (more often/more repetitively) and knew the lyrics better - as opposed to One Republic's songs which I know well, but can sometimes stumble over individual lyrics/versus.

This coupled with Tom being in a smaller venue (and quickly growing from "up and coming" in Sept. '21) - I felt like Tom's concert was a lot more "closely knit" and wholesome - like "I'm not the only person who absolutely loves this guy" - it also helped that Tom's concert had seating!

It was still a very nice experience, but Tom very much nailed the fan interaction/experience on the head, whilst One Republic was very much about the performance aspect (Tom talked a lot more, and gave introductions/little known info on the next song).

After the Concert (and almost losing my car afterwards) it was very much the same rinse and repeat happened at Uni (except for 1st – 3rd May, with a small family medical scare)

May

15th May – “Shadowing” Day for Work experience (BTCC @ Brands Hatch)

21st May – Inflatable 5K (first time I went to Brands Hatch twice in one week)

24th May – Final Day (At Uni), spent the following 9 days helping around Essex

31st May – 3 Years of Kabort Motorsport & Marcus Smith joins iRacing.

2nd June – First attempt at selling Kiara

3rd June – Bought New Car (2007/8 Skoda Octavia Estate)

4th June – 12hrs Hockenheim (Creventic Endurance Series – Completely missed it!

5th June – Returned home for first time since Uni ended to get car documents.

June

Not a week later, I bought my “first” car with the help of William. Kiara was proceeding to die with a confirmed leaking gearbox, supposed crack in the exhaust and in desperate need of a fuel sender (I had no clue how much fuel I had in the car)

From arriving in Essex to sell Kiara, to having Kiara sold and Timon bought, the entire process took about a week – mainly because I forgot my service history for Kiara (had to go back and get it + spare keys), but eventually I sold Kiara for £11.40 more than I bought Timon for – which was, in the end, pretty darn close.

In the first 3 months, I’ve:

- Bought Timon (3rd June)

- Had a “Workshop Day”, modernising Timon’s looks (11th June)

- Sold Kiara (12th June)

- Lapped the M25 (Never done a lap from Jct. 10 – Jct. 11) (13th June)

- Driven from Land’s End to Lowesoft. (29th June)

- Driven to the highest point in both Surrey and the Isle Of Wight (Surrey being the 20th Highest peak in the UK) (Surrey: 11th July | IOW: 1st August)

I’m not sure where our next adventure will take us, but I hope it’s Land’s End to John O’ Groats!

I could go on all day about how great the Land’s End to Lowesoft trip was – the amazing B&B in the middle of nowhere, the surprisingly interesting ancient village, the shockingly bad hotel on the final night, the headache with the car-curtains… the list goes on.

In the weeks leading up to the Land’s End to Lowesoft run, my friend – Evie also invited me along to see Ed Sheeran, which was an INCREDIBLE gesture. (24th June) Other than seeing him, a huge highlight of the day was finding FREE parking in central London!

On the 15th June, on my second race (first endurance race) back since half-term it was the Glen 6hrs – which ended due to my own stacking – once again from the lead/lead positions. As they always say “Always next year”

Mid-June also saw the release of this BEAUTY – The Civetta Scintilla - a fictitious modern Italian supercar for BeamNG.Drive - one of the most requested vehicles since...well, the game released.

July

July was probably my “last normal month” before the anarchy that was August.

I started July returning to the Isle Of Wight (after Land’s End To Lowesoft Trip) via Beaulieu Garage – which had quite a few nice models in it.

Later that week, I went to Southampton to have my brakes changed and on the very same street as me was a stabbing.

Further on, I saw Jurassic Park Dominion.

Back on the Isle Of Wight, on the 17th July, I finally beat a Teardown mission I had been stuck on for the past 6 months (28th Jan – 17th July).

In the Land Of iRacing – I miraculously finished the Spa 24 Hours with a friend called Will and his mate called Matt. (23rd July) – despite MANY calamities, we finished a solid 14th.

The same couldn’t be said about the PearTree 3 on 15th July as I crashed with a GT4 just 18 minutes in.

The GT3 Challenge race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve only went slightly better – being spun out after being set for a podium finish (started 5th).

Admittedly, at this point, things were manageable…and then August hit.

August - September 2022: A Flat-Out Summer.

1st Aug – First friend visited me (From mainland) – and only friend of mine to visit the Isle Of Wight thus far.

2nd Aug – Went from the Isle Of Wight to the Mainland to visit friend – Road trip to Kent.

3rd Aug – GT3 Challenge Hungaoring (Final GT3 race in Mercedes), lasted a lap and quarter, then fled to GT4. (McLaren, after ROAR Before the 24 Success)

4th Aug – “Teardown Day” – Completed x2 tricky Teardown Missions

5th Aug – “A Day For Myself” – I had been so busy, and was about to be even busier, so I set aside a day for myself, but I didn’t know what that entailed, so I just completed another Teardown Mission

6th Aug – “Race” Day…ahem, on iRacing, on this weekend was:

1) Road Atlanta Global Endurance Series (24hrs)

2) Nurburgring Endurance Championship

3) Creventic Endurance Series (Imola)

Instead, I headed to my friend’s house, and she was having a birthday celebration on her birthday (8th Aug)

7th – 8th Aug – stayed in Manchester overnight for friend’s birthday (Had breakfast, lunch and dinner at 3 different Wetherspoons)…and desert too

9th Aug – Visited Viaduct with same friend I saw on 2nd Aug

10th Aug – Too late to head home, (had to drop things off at different friends’ houses) so I stayed in Essex.

11th Aug – Headed home, dropped things off that were left in my car, visited Ferrari dealership in Lyndhurst.

12th Aug – got into RFactor due to competition system and Caterham Rookie – Participation would be the nail in the coffin, and why I wouldn’t return.

(Final solo race of Season 3, 2022)

13th Aug – Ferry was busy on this day, so postponed event that was to happen on the 14th.

14th – 19th Aug- Helped Felix move out and driving people to a camp Felix was running

17th Aug – 1Yr of Tom Wallace being on iRacing. First friend to do so.

20th – 21st Aug - Le Mans-ish 24 Hours (Finished 7th in class after a crazy race and brake failure)

22nd – 29th Aug: Family holiday to Portugal (Madiera) – Super lovely.

25th Aug: Mum’s birthday & 1 Yr of me being single

29th Aug: Artemis Rocket Attempt #1 (would eventually launch on Nov. 17th)

30th Aug - Rest Day

31st Aug: Went shopping with Friend.

1st – 4th Sept - Stayed in Essex.

5th Sept – Returned Home. On way home, had Pizza with different friend.

6th – 12th September: Week 13.

6th Sept – (Ferrari GT3 Challenge) – Le Mans – 13th --> 6th 😊

7th Sept – Spa – 4th – 19th ☹ (Jump start)

8th Sept – Her Majesty Passes away, almost finished 3rd at Road Atlanta, but 4th was all I could manage.

9th Sept –Rudskogen, was killed off the line, Logitech G-Hub started to play up

10th Sept - E: Drive began to die, Bought “This Land Is My Land” did funky things on install, Twin Ring Motegi, Boring race.

11th Sept – Computer began taking 10hrs to Launch, missed W13 race.

12th Sept – Road America – final race in two weeks before PC Died. “The Queue” officially starts. 1Yr ago, bought Teardown on this day.

12th Sept – Uni informs me I have to re-take 2nd year. PC dead and no foreseeable future. Fun.

13th Sept – 15th Sept – Days of Sadness | 15th – 1yr Since Tom Grennan concert

16th Sept – Left for mainland (6.30am start in Surrey) – London To Brighton.

17th Sept – London To Brighton Off-road (10hrs 29 Minutes) – 2hr faster than last year.

19th Sept – Queen’s Funeral (Wish I did see lying in state, was very important and won’t happen again.)

20th Sept – Headed to Jobcentre and took step 1 of getting my life back on track.

22 – 24th Sept: Stay over two friends.

26th Sept - PC Diagnosed and back on track.

28th Sept – First race since E died. (missed W1 & W2 – ROAR track in ROAR car, and chaos Okayama)

29th Sept. – 6th Oct: First week without a major event

8th Oct – Petite Le Mans (2nd!!!!)

15th Oct – NEC Finale (GT4) – Very enjoyable, will do GT4 in next year’s NEC.

17th Oct. – SCCA Run-Offs*

20th Oct – 21st Oct – Week 1/5: going to mainland (See Friend/help out)

27th Oct – Week 2/5: going to mainland (Car Service)

2nd Nov – 2nd podium of season – 2nd place @ Nurburgring Nordschliefe, GT4

4th Nov – 7th Nov - Week 3/5: going to mainland (Watching fireworks – Woking & Essex)

11th Nov – 14th Nov – Week 4/5: going to mainland (Race Of Remembrance)

17th Nov – 20th Nov– Week 5/5: going to mainland (Comicon Winter)

25th - 26th November - Crazy Weekend of seeing Matilda The Musical (in the cinema), as well as racing at both Imola and Indianapolis (mixed results)

https://www.kabortmotorsport.com/post/dashing-to-december-pt-2

SCCA Run-Offs (17th Oct.)

Probably the most unusual (road) special event of the year.

During the iRacing week, (Tues - Fri), there are regular races - in these races, you get points - the drivers with the Top 40 most points race in a special race on the weekend.

I thought there would be so many entries that I had no shot at the Top 40 - but, ironically, the opposite was true - there were so few drivers competing in the races during the week that only a handful went "official" (7 entries makes an event official/count for points) - after my first official race, I was 41st/40 - and had one driver not shown up for the Weekend race, I would have been in - but during the race (which put me 41st), I was absolutely humiliated.

In an attempt to try and get in the Top 40 (again), I did another race, and ended up 48th - fair enough, fair play, and I'm glad only the drivers in the two races saw me get humiliated, and not to a live audience!

Run Into Christmas (December 2022)

After not doing anything during 2021, in late November, I decided to start a Christmas Countdown by uploading one blog a day until Christmas (or indeed new year) but since I was out on the 1st December - and incredibly busy on the 2nd - this got very tricky - especially with a 24 Hour race in mid-December.

I will say, however, that Week 13 helped, giving me 7 days of free blog content.

I blogged when I could - and blogged even more when I couldn't (making up for missed days) - and more often than not would upload a blog (or two) a day

The year absolutely ended on a high as I gained a whopping +156 iRating in two weeks launching me from 1316 to a personal-best record breaking 1466 iRating - nearing the 1500 iRating mark - almost enough for me to start entering leagues! I have only a few iRating-related fears: 1) I'll get taken out and lose every last iRating I've gained (or indeed, take myself out)

2) I'll hit my skill limit and not be competitive and keep bouncing off 1.4K. 3) Once I try a different series, I won't be competitive in a 1.6K split, and me driving in F4 is "artificially inflating my iRating" - but I suppose the best drivers can drive everything (both GT and Open Wheelers)

Mid-December was also the start of many new things - my manual driving lessons (driving instructor is A LOT calmer than my automatic one) and a Mazda league - which started atrociously, but has sorted itself out - with a pretty decent P12 finish last time out.

My week currently looks amazing.

Monday:

Driving Lesson and/or Universal Credit Meeting (League practice session @ 9pm)

Tuesday:

Irish Mazda League (RTA Motorsport) | Midnight Practice Session for weekly Formula 4.

Wednesday:

Race-Day (Formula 4/IR-04/Formula D)

Thursday - Sunday: Weekend.

Anyway, just 9 days left of 2022 and 3 to Christmas - Lets see how it goes!