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A Shite Weekend.

These past four days....haven't exactly gone to plan.


I understand it's just past mid-day on a Sunday, but with only 12 hours to go, it'll be pretty damn hard to undo all the damage this weekend has caused.


Thursday 18th March, 2021


Thursday itself didn't go overly bad - just that a race that I thought was starting at 6pm (practice) and 8pm (race) actually started much later - past 11pm (6pm & 8pm CET)


Unfortuanely, it was more than just a race however - it was a league - a league every Thursday night...I have since pulled from the league.


The league would have been my first (okay - third after MOFO and ISPC) but this too fell through - I've just got to get my iRating up and then I'll be able to get into leagues.


Alas - I cancelled all plans to race that evening and just had a calm evening in instead.


I say calm - I was stressed out of my mind - I had an assignment due the following day and quite some few upcoming events - not least including the Sebring 12 Hours.


Friday 19th March, 2021


Friday begun the awful weekend with the submission day of my Public Affairs assignment - I'm personally not a political person and have no interest in politics - anyway, submitted "a document" and yeah, that was pretty much Friday. It was due on Friday at 2pm - and I worked until 2pm. I'm not proud of what I submitted and it wasn't up to a "university standard of work" - but I tried and I will continue to probably work on it and see if I can squeeze any more out of it.


As much as it sucks that that assignment in particular was the first submission of Semester 2, 2021 - I'm glad it's in the past and over and done with - hopefully come the second years of my uni course, I won't have to deal with politics again and focus on things I am knowledgable and enthusiastic about.


In exactly a week my Television News Production work is due - with the third (Radio News Production) being due in early April. Following this, there will be just 3 more assignments to complete before being done for the year.


That evening I watched the first three episodes of Drive To Survive (Season 3) which made up for the mediocre day. Maybe I'll watch Season 1/2 after I'm finished?


Saturday


Oh Saturday, Saturday, Saturday...The day in which I entered four races and finished none. (Must be a new record for me).


The first was the 09:00am GMT VRS Endurance race with Twan (his "Road To Kabort/Road To Joining Kabort") I registered at 08:30am and everything went well until qualifying.


Long story short, Twan attempted to qualify, but would crash on both laps/attempts....


We'd be starting at the back of the grid.


The problem was that Twan is above 2,200 iRating - double mine. With a slightly "higher" (than usual) iRating of 1,108 we were put in the middle of three splits (usually I'm in the third/bottom). I was not competitive. It's as simple as that, I couldn't cope. The drivers in the split were much more skilled and faster than I was and I was just not enjoying myself. A bounce of the barrier and damaged aero was the last straw.


I pulled the car over and retired from the race - much to the major annoyance of Twan.


Whilst Twan himself wouldn't lose any iRating (as he didn't put in a single lap of the race), I would lose 54 iRating - plummeting me back to 1054 iRating...I honestly feel like I'm on one of those water "wipeout" courses you get - I climb up, I'm confident, I know where I need to be careful...annnd then I fall off, sploosh into the water and I have to restart all over again. I'm still 1K which is...a thing.


Maybe I should set myself the goal of being 1.1K before going off to uni?

GT (Shit) Show

A few depressing hours later, it was time for the "GT Show" - Four Races (TCR, Mazda, GT1, GTE), One afternoon, One stream.


Due to attendance, this would be stripped down to just two races - The GT4 and TCR races being cancelled and the Mazda's being chucked in with the GT1's.


My smart ass would press ALT + Enter (making iRacing full-screen) just as the practice session ended and qualifying began - iRacing freezing before I'd have to log-out of my computer and log back in again to close it (the simulator itself closed with task manager/ALT+F4 but the simulator audio still played even when it was closed.


Out of the 15 minute qualifying session, I'd have no more than 6-8 minutes to qualify - around a 4 minute (roughly) lap-time - that leaves one out lap and one flying lap. No mistakes then.


THE Louis Deletraz (yep, the F2 Driver) slapped in a pole-lap of a 3:45.840 - Me on the other hand? I dawdled home with a 3:54.732 - in an Aston Martin GT1 with limited practice -I'm just glad I got around the lap.


I struggled. I struggled with grip, confidence, pace/lap-time and with one million off-tracks firing at me I had enough and (rage quit).


A few hours following this, I'd enter the GTE race. I don't know why I was expecting anything more - but since I was much more comfortable and in-tune with the Ferrari GTE, I just thought - this can't go much worse than the GT1 race...can it?


Well, I qualified last, (In Class) once again and after yet another slowdown for just looking at a kerb the wrong way, I said "fuck this" and gave up. The GTE field were scampering away anyway and I was not up for two hours of getting slow-downs.


Saturday ended how it started - a complete and utter fucking mess.


I was supposed to do the Saturday Night European Endurance Series (EES) but OF COURSE I only registered Joost and Niels (and not myself) - I assume what happened was that as I was already pre-selected - I selected Joost and Niels to drive (by clicking their names once) and then clicked my name once (by instinct - which actually unselected me) and then I was just a crew-member from there.


Miracoulously, Niels was able to get home from being busy/work early (or earlier) to aid Joost - from 34th on the Grid (probably has something to do with me) they managed to finish 19th - with a mess-up that late on, that's pretty darn good improvisation and adaptation to the situation.


Sunday 21st March


With one more VRS Endurance race with Antonio this afternoon/evening can I make amends or will it officially be "The Worst Weekend Of My Career"?


Well, hopefully it won't - because I hope that a new day brings new luck...but we'll see.



Looking Forward

Unbelievably, next week marks the final full week of March - I have no idea how but bloody nora time's going quickly by!


Next Week is a biggy: - It's The final MOFO Hare And Tortoise race and championship decider. - The GT3 Challenge Series goes to Sebring (as does VRS Endurance) - It's the Sebring 12 Hours - It's a special anniversary for something close to my heart - There's another assignment due (this time it's not an essay) - It's the First race of the 2021 Formula One Season: The Bahrain Grand Prix.


The week after that? I GET TO SEE MY GIRLFRIEND!


Other than The GT3 Challenge heading to Daytona Roval, we enter April! April Marks roughly T-Minus 12 Days until I return to Uni! (Aaaaagh! I've not been in so long and it'll be good to see some new walls!)


Lime Rock (GT3 Challenge & VRS Endurance) and Monza European Endurance Series (EES) will be my last chance to secure that 1.1K.


I'm currently only -46 iRating away from the magic number I'm so desperately trying to hold onto.


I got 80 iRating for my second at Watkins Glen, so if by pure coincidence or magic I have another good result - 1.1 isn't out of the question.


Once again - Thank you for reading these blogs, and I'll see you in the next!

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