A Grand Return (Pt. 1)

I'm back. It's taken a long and gruelling 5 months, but I'm finally back - back blogging, racing and thriving.

It's been 127 Days (4 months and 6 days) since I left my parents house on the Isle Of Wight and honestly, I have no idea where the time's gone - in two weeks it's June - half way through the year!

Where HAVE you been?! Good question. I shan't bore you with 127 days worth of blogs, but I'll do a whistle-stop review of the past 4 months

Prologue Besides those directly involved, there's usually several groups of people at the site of an accident - police, paramedics, fire crew and in worst cases - crash scene investigators.

There's one group I missed out. Highways England.

Due to the nature of the emergency services (police, fire, ambulance), I've quickly shunned career opportunities in all three down - but when I saw the job description of a Highway Traffic Officer, I was intrigued - I didn't have to deal with criminals and serious accidents were/are rare enough I wouldn't have to deal with broken bones on a daily basis.

I was to "deal with the management of incidents such as road traffic collisions, removal of debris and other unplanned events." There was just two requirements - a manual licence and to live within an hour of the job. A manual licence comes with other benefits too - so with the Highways job in mind, I set myself a goal - to pass the manual driving test.

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Late 2023

Three years after first contacting Highways (England) in 2021, I was now living on the Isle Of Wight with my parents

After a successful summer passing my manual driving test and working at Tesco for 2 months, I attempted to re-apply for Tesco for the festive period.

Festive jobs began in October, but local jobs only began appearing in November. The moment they did - I applied.

As Christmas came and went, Tesco didn't respond to my application.

After "parting ways" with University in 2022, it took 9 months for me to get the Tesco job - I wasn't waiting until summer to try again.

With little to no other job opportunities - I knew I had to do something different.

Whilst not perfect by any means, Harlow was the best shot I had at the mainland.

I had friends in Harlow and it was well within one of Highways' jobs.

With my manual licence in hand (literally), and Harlow being within an hour of the Potter's Bar Depot, the least I could do was try - as they always say

"Shoot for the moon and if you fail, at least you'll end up among the stars"

January 2024

Prior to moving out, I had one condition - I complete the iRacing ROAR Before The 24.

In 2022, on the race's return, I finished 4th despite a cone getting stuck underneath my car.

In 2023, I finished 16th after starting 24th, and then falling to 48th

(34th --> 24th --> 41st --> 16th) It was a mistake-filled race - spinning to the back of the field on the 4th lap and then missing my pit-stop.

Come 2024, I wanted to see how far up the field I could get with a month's practice and as few mistakes as possible (i.e: none).

admittedly, it was a pretty boring/uneventful race - but I started 19th and finished 15th against a tough field.

Race done, it was time to move out.