The Blogs Return For "Blogmas:" - "Blog A Day"!

Hello and welcome back! It's been a while! I hope you are all doing well.

Welcome, firstly to December, Happy Holidays! - And secondly - and more importantly: Welcome to Blog A Day! In the spirit of the festive season, I'm planning to write/publish one blog a day up until Christmas!

Enjoy!

First off: Where did the site go?

I cancelled my wix subscription, which ended my access to /the website - yet I could still edit and access the blogs, I just couldn't use "kabortmotorsport.com" - which is fine, I had work and no time to publish/write blogs, and by doing so I was saving myself upwards of £20 a month - with the budget being tight, this helped.

Unfortunately, Wix saw straight through my money-saving plan (of making this website live and then de-activating it for a few months) and now wants £78 if I want to re-activate it. That's fine. Plenty more sites on the web for me to use - and I'd rather pay £18 for a new one than £78 for the old one. So I might move around a bit in the coming year.

What have I been up to since the last blog? (August 28th)

Eat, sleep, work repeat - as I start work at 3pm, and finish at midnight, there's been little time for anything else - after a lie in, usually the first port of call is food - breakfast (toast or cereal), then preparing dinner/tea (usually a lunchbox - sandwich, fruit, cold meat and a yogurt/snack) - then focussing on lunch - either a microwave meal or pasta with a side.

By the time I've eaten, I've got to start getting ready to leave, and then I'm off.

Since 28th August, I've begun to work one day weekends (either Saturday or Sunday - not both) as of 7th September.

I alternate between Saturday and Sunday to ensure my week has some variety.

That being said, I have managed to "escape" twice this year - once to Cornwall for a long weekend (Fri - Mon) and once to Northern Ireland (Mon - Weds).

When I went to cornwall, I went to a lovely little village/town called "Looe" - it was very picturesque.

When off to Northern Ireland, I managed to organise, book and fund my first fully funded holiday on a shoestring budget of £200 - I finished the holiday spending £221 - just the souvineer shop going slightly over.

The only REAL issue was that as I took Mon - Weds off, I wouldn't be paid for those days - and it just so happened that during that very week (of significantly lower income) rent was due - and I only JUST scraped by making £377 for the week, and the remainder of rent needing £350.

Oh. and tax came out the same day. And the fridge was empty.

Later in November, I planned to see Fireworks at Brands Hatch with a friend, but arrived too late to see any racing action, and JUST made it time to see the fireworks show.

The following week, both the Woking Fireworks and the Race Of Remembrance were on, but I was needed for work.

I've recently found out I'm a bit of a workaholic - I love working, I enjoy working and it pays the bills - so the longer I work, the more money I get - and that results in more money being left over for bills, food, fuel...and eventually it trickles down to the fun stuff (iRacing content etc.).

Having only started 6 months ago, I didn't want to "display" a bad first impression (by using up my holiday time) - and, as mentioned before, I enjoy/enjoyed working so much, I rather do nothing else.

October marked 6 months at the company - which meant my "probationary period" came to an end, in the grand scheme of things, nothing changes, it just makes it a little more official, and a little harder to dismiss me.

My car has also had some work done this year to fix some gremlins - but all cars have them.

Timon (my Skoda Octavia) ended the year with a bang as he required a fair bit of work - both the front and rear shock absorbers needing to be done in time for the MOT next year - to split the cost, I opted to have them done two months apart: Rears in November, fronts in January, MOT due in early March.

Sadly, in November (whilst the shocks were being done) it was discovered there was a knocking sound coming from the engine - it had been doing it for a while, but only whilst idling. I put this off fearing the worst - and I had every right to be scared - it turned out the Flywheel Flexplate was damaged - a repair to this would require 5 hours of work and the engine to be removed.

Having owned Timon since June 2022, I've begun to fall in love with him - and don't really want to pass him on. I know I said I'd sell once the repairs out-weigh the cost of the car - but... Let's just see what happens after this. I want to see how long Timon lasts (following this repair) before there's another big bill. Second big bill? Okay, his time is coming - I am just curious if this is just a wear and tear thing - or something that naturally happens and it was just a matter of time before said issue occured. But no, I'm curious if Timon's reached his limit and now needs a lot of work (besides this) or if he's got a little longer left in him. It also allows me to have some time to save up some money towards something else.

Even at this point, he's lasted than my previous Kia Venga - (which might I add was newer - 2012) - I'm considering something on the Skoda/VW line-up, but I don't know how long a car is meant to last before these sorts of costs start to crop up. But I'm looking at something in the 2012 - 2014 ballpark. But I'm going to play it by eyes and ears

iRacing

Since August, progress has been slow - after a wild Week 13 racing in the F4 & Chevrolet GT3 (separate series), Season 4, 2024 saw me continue my FalkenTyre Sports Car Challenge campaign.

During Week 13, I raced in the "13th Week Ridiculousness" series, which pitched the Chevrolet GTE, Chevrolet GT3 and Chevrolet Daytona Prototype (DP) against one another - participation was pitiful for this series (nobody turned up, and most days I raced against myself/on my own).

I also raced in the "Battle Of The Little Wings" series which saw much better participation, but still no trophies - but one 4th (Lenedon).

Season 4, 2024 marked my 5th consecutive season racing in the series - making it my longest-running series, followed by the GT3 Challenge (in the Lamborghini) at 4 consecutive seasons.

This year has been eerily quiet - in fact 2024 has seen the most time taken off iRacing - a total 173 days (5 months, 3 weeks) not racing. This year saw no racing activity between:

- February and April (129 Days) - September 10th - October 23rd (44 Days)

This meant I missed many of 2024's iRacing Special Events - including the Bathurst 1000km, which saw it's last race with the Holden and Mustang Supercars (moving on to "Gen 3" in 2025)

This has partially been down to moving out between January and April this year and partially to with the unreliable internet I've been having at my house.

I have a WiFi adapter plugged into my computer - and throughout 2024, it's been on a wild, adventurous and courageous journey - starting at my windowsill and making its way all the way across the other side of my room and out my front door (into the hallway).

It wasn't until November 2024 when I finally had enough internet signal to not flicker (causing issues for other cars too) - meaning the cars on my screen weren't flickering around either - meaning I could be more confident and have tight battles without fear of them flickering. FINALLY, after almost an entire year (10 months) of fighting for a decent internet signal, the test-run at The Red Bull Ring worked with flying colours - providing an absolutely thrilling - and nail-biting race when I trial-ran the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) 2 hour race with the WiFi adaptor outside my front door.

During this race I went from 32nd to 4th in 2 hours, in very difficult conditions (rain stopped after about an hour, track was still wet, but drying).

With poor confidence (with other cars flickering) I felt like I had one hand tied behind my back, and this led to poor results, and poor results led to a big loss in iRating.

After starting 2024 at 1504 iRating (skill-level) 2024 has seen me plunge to a depth of 1176 iRating - but with the internet now sorted (cross fingers) - the mission/aim is to now work at slowly rebuilding it.

At the time of writing, I've now gained +108 iRating and am now -263 iRating off where I was in January. With the Purr, Meow and ROAR coming up (FalkenTyre, Michelin Pilot 2hr and ROAR Before The 24) - hopefully there's lots of iRating and personal records on the table.

The Start Of Something Big

2024 saw the start of something absolutely revolutionary (for me).

During the pandemic in 2020, I joined a league hosted by a commentator friend of my dad's called Joe Bradley.

One of the competitors I became friends with was called Ed Sibbald.

Throughout 2021-2024, Ed's been doing a little bit of club racing (mostly racing in the Civic Cup Championship) - like pretty much every young motorsport fan, I've had the thoughts "I want to become a racing driver", which turned into "how to I become a racing driver?" I tried a bit of karting (indoor and outdoor) - despite being useless, I loved it, enjoyed it, did a few arrive-and-drive championships, but the money just dried up.

In July 2024, Ed posted this picture

Aaaand the voices started again - so I began googling - I started with the C1 Championship, then looked around different championships, series and organisers in the UK and then stumbled upon BARC (British Automobile Racing Club). I heard of them before, but in my research, I stumbled across the Caterham Academy Championship. Oh No.

£50,000 for a childhood dream. (£38,990 + £10,000 holding fee & deposit)

Sure, I could do my ARDS and buy a £1,000 Citroen C1 - but if it's unreliable or breaks down, I'm completely on my own - and I'm

£50,000 gets me

• An ARDS test (which will lead to a competition licence)

• A road-legal race car (I can drive on the road)

• A car I can use in further Caterham Championship Series

• 7 Races (+1 Sprint/Time-Attack event)

• Step-By-Step Support

• technical support

• Event hospitality (+ a guest!)

• A competitive field (nobody has their ARDS/race licence/previous race experience)

As the cliche, overused saying goes - "you only live once, you only get one shot at this life - take it!"

So, of course, I call Caterham Academy up and inform them of my interest - and the gentleman on the phone was SUPER friendly and understanding - and even gave me this amazing advice: "If you want to go racing, but don't have - save up £10,000 a year for 5 years"

which works out to £833.33 a month, or £222 a week.

I make double that, so in August 2024, the first step towards the dream began. £1 saved turned into £100, turned to £200, turned to £1000.

1% saved turned to 2% - and within the first couple of months, I got up to 4%. The aim is to hit £10,000 (saved) at some point in mid-to-late 2025. And if I can prove to myself that it's perfectly possible to save said amount, I'll just have to rinse and repeat in the years to follow.

I've got a long way to go - I've got to get into some sort of shape, I need to buy the race gear, maybe do a few one-off kart events along the way...

"Why 5 years?" Firstly, I haven't the funds - nor do I have access to £50,000.

And secondly, I don't want to achieve my life-goal at age 23. I'm not even a quarter of the way through my life - I'd like to have something to work towards and look forward to - because if I jump into a race season now, when I finish...it'll be very much a case of "well, what now?" but at 29 - I'll be in a position where I'd be considering buying a house, I might be further in my career.

It also gives me flexibility - I can have a few bad months where I don't meet the £833.33 target - and make it up later on.

All I can do at the moment is keep meeting the £222 p/w target and take it from there - let time do the rest - and see where I am in a year, two, and go from there.

A "Final" Word... To end, I thank you ever so much for reading (if you have), I greatly appreciate the interest in my life.

Apologies about the inconvenience of the website going down, but it will likely happen again, giving my upcoming schedule, but I plan to do a big blog every couple of months.

I'm not going anywhere however - and have got big plans every Saturday right up until March 2025 - so stayed tuned for weekly news galore!

And with that, I bid you farewell, all the best - and I will see you...tomorrow ;)