A Rocky Return to iRacing (Pt. 1: A Place To Call Home)

Prologue

I can't lie, besides the beach and concerts, iRacing is my happy place - it's where I can escape reality and just race as hard as I can to my heart's content.

In September 2023, the contract for my seasonal job ran out - and I was left without a job.

It had taken 9 months to find this job - and I wasn't prepared to spend another 9 months on the island looking for another, so in late 2023, I decided to move out, off the island (Isle Of Wight) at the start of 2024.

My only priority was (of course) iRacing and the 2024 iRacing ROAR Before the 24.

Up to that point, all my attempts of the ROAR had been marred by misfortune, bad luck and - admittedly - lack of skill.

In 2024, I wanted to practice as hard as I could for the ROAR Before the 24 - and see how high I could get with minimal mistakes/accidents.

The race wasn't the most thrilling - but I got the answer I was looking for and had a very solid and clean run, though the field was pretty spread out.

Following that weekend, I moved out to the mainland

Part 1: The Funding

From January until April, I was sofa surfing on my friends' sofa - due to the uncertain nature of my living situation, I left the rig (PC, monitor and wheels and pedals) at home on the Isle Of Wight to focus on either getting a job or a house.

It was a vicious cycle - landlords didn't want me because I didn't have a stable income and was only on universal credit and jobs/employers didn't want me because I didn't have an address/was using my Isle Of Wight address.

My luck finally changed in March when I saw a minibus in front of me, copied down the number, and later phoned them.

Long story short, the bus in front of me was a Vectare minibus - and after a quick medical check and other paperwork signed, I began working at Vectare on the 16th April.

This was half the job done - but made my life a whole lot easier having a stable income.

Part 2: The Room

In late April/May, I stumbled upon a property on OpenRent which ticked all of the boxes

• Within my budget (£700 or less)

• Was closer to work than Harlow

• Had been looked after and recently had renovations done.

After a viewing and lots of discussions, I finally picked up the keys on payday - the 10th May.

The following day, I went home to collect a bunch of furniture (including the rig) from my house on the Isle Of Wight.

Part 3: Setting Up

After the weekend of sorting things on the Island, I was incredibly eager to start setting up my own place - so took the first ferry of the week (Monday 13th May, 5:30am) back to the mainland - I arrived at just before 8am.

The room was completely unfurnished - which meant I could make it my own and set it up exactly as I liked.

by 9am the rig was already up and - for the most part - running - with everything but the monitor working.

During work, I nipped home to oversee the arrival of my bed-base and mattress.

The following day (14th) was a productive one - fitting a lampshade, curtains and getting the internet/WiFi details/information.

Finally, the following day, on the 15th May, I eventually got my monitor sorted - I had plugged the monitor cable into the wrong slot in the back of my PC. I even went to Curry's to buy a cable...which turned out to be useless (was refunded).

With the monitor now on, I could now re-join the world of iRac- no.

It turns out, my computer had no WiFi adapter - meaning it couldn't search for internet signal.

On the 18th May, I bough a "Mini Wireless USB Adapter"

The internet I'm using is in a different building - so the WiFi adapter/reader on its own saw that there was a WiFi signal/network - but the signal was so weak, it was practically unusable.

Two days later, on the 20th I bought a "high gain, dual antennas" USB WiFi adapter which strengthened the signal received. This was so effective that I downloaded the MANY iRacing updates the following day.

Coincidentally enough, the day following that (the 22nd) was Wednesday - race-day and the GT4 series was at Spa - a grand debut after a 5-month hiatus was in order.