An Eventful Start To The Week

Good Morning! I hope you are all doing well, for some odd reason I'm in a strangely positive mood, but that's probably because I got a full-night's sleep.

After Sunday's race (where myself and Twan got taken out by the Merc), Week 13 could not come quick enough.

Monday 8th March

On Monday, the UK came a step closer to ending the current lockdown restrictions. Monday marked the date on which pupils in schools (primary, secondary and college) in addition to students on practical courses could go back to University - if things remain as they are...I might be able to have a massive reunion this summer!

I've been told that the plan is to get me back on campus on the 12th April - but we'll see how things go, I believe that's the "Best Case Scenario"

Monday itself was very, very calm. I'd done all my races for the week and now begun the waiting game for Week 13 to start.

At about midnight/1am, I'd jump into the very last Formula 3 practice session of Season 1, 2021. From the top of my head, there was only a handful of others racing in the final practice sessions of their series, but I wasn't a part of their session so I could only see if they were "registered" and not actually driving. Me personally, I was second of the last two to complete a lap in a Formula 3 car.(the other guy starting his lap 5 seconds before the end of the session - myself nowhere near this).

I'd watch as all the official series dissapeared and wondered to myself "What SHOULD I do for Week 13?

My first instinct was to race in the Battle Of The Small Wings, since it was very much up my street - "monoposto" - putting different open-wheeled cars in the same series. The only issue was the fact that I didn't own any of the (open wheel) cars the series was running.

The cars weren't in my niche either. Having raced in Formula 3 the previous season, I didn't want to go back to Formula Renault 2.0 or buy it just for Week 13.

The other three cars were the insanely fast Dallara IR01 (only in production on iRacing) and two open-wheelers that race in America (I like european/international series - or series I've seen on TV)

I decided to hit the hay and wait the update out, so I went to sleep.

Tuesday 9th March 2021

Tuesday was a very special day for me.

Firstly, it was the first day of Week 13, always a fun time, but it was also the 1 year anniversary of me hitting 620 iRating - my lowest IR to date.

For the story on that, I've done two blogs on the subject (Part 1) and (Part 2) Currently I'm sitting on 1026 iRating - 406 iRating higher than I was, so to come from that was pretty special - I was 1198 in February, but life happens.

If I can continue to pump out the results and Twan treats me well in the VRS Endurance series, maybe I can see myself staying 1K for the year? Or have a more successful year than previously?

At 12:30 (midday) the very final step of changing team principals from Andy Jones to Adam J. Pearce happened: Adam received the Team Principal role and was officially appointed as Team Principal Of Kabort Motorsport. This was and still is a massive role and title and something to be very proud of. There will be a seperate blog delving deep into this.

iRacing went down from 1pm until just after 7pm. After this I did the 8pm Week 13 GT3 Challenge Race.

This went swimmingly - after a couple of laps getting to know Watkins in the Lambo, I was ready for the race.

I'd qualify in 10th, have a 0x (incident-free) race and come home to finish 8th behind a lapped car I thought I was fighting - so breathed a sigh of relief when I realised I didn't lose a position. Hockenheim was the following day and I was hyped.

The timing of the race was a little bit worrying - as it was at 8pm, I thought I was going to have to miss that evening's MOFO Mazda round, but at 7:20pm, the GT3 race had finished and there was still plenty of time for practice in the MOFO Mazda race at Oulton Park.

In a rare turn of events, I'd finish the first MOFO race 6th overall - one of my highest finishes in any of MOFO branded league races - on top of this, I'd also not hit anyone...after getting into trouble at the first three races of Brands Hatch (Hit Daman), Silverstone (dive-bombed Herring, took myself out) and Donington Park (rear-ended Joe Bradley, spun another at the penultimate corner) I was certainly on the "Red List". Fortunately, Oulton went well and with one clean race, I was on the road to cleaning myself up.

Race 2 would start with me on pole...after finishing 6th, and the second (race) being a reverse grid for only the top 6, it was a fine opportunity to see the pace car for the first time in my career.

Obviously, there's some "alien" talent at MOFO and I was quickly swamped, but starting the 10th lap of 18, I was 10th overall, not bad!

Unfortunately an individual I shall keep anonymous had other ideas and from a lap down and in 17th place, gave me a good old spin - later claiming it was for "all the races I'd ruined." My car had quite a lot of damage (after the guy behind him collected me). I'd return to the pits and do a bit of analysis.

At first I thought "eh, can't be bothered to continue, my race is ruined" but saw that even when my car was repaired 15th or so was still overtaking me...so I returned back out on track. Had I exited earlier, yes I probably could have picked up a position, but I didn't and finished the final 5 laps in last. (or pretty much last) Yeah, it was quite the stinging blow after a good clean race, but four things sharply stuck out in my mind. 1) After building a reputation, you can either go for redemption or repetition - I went for the former.

2) No matter how many mistakes you make, as long as you're not doing them intentionally and you're learning from them, it's alright - mistakes happen, it's how you deal with them that's the main thing - and it's always better to have an accident and learn from it, then take someone out and...feel good about yourself? Feel good that they suffered? Feel good that you took your pain, anger and annoyance out on them? You gain nothing but self-satisfaction out of taking someone out purposely - and doing something for only your gain is selfish, and being selfish ain't a great trait to have. 3) I would never even begin to consider wrecking someone intentionally, I wouldn't have it in me...the points, position, confidence, happiness and enjoyment they'd lose is just simply not worth it, it's much better to have a productive post-race discussion.

If I'm that hated that someone wants to spin/wreck me to "get back" at me for mistakes I've made in the past (over, let's admit it, in a game) then no offence, but that's a little bit sad - like this isn't real life - the MOFO League/series is all about fun and collecting some points on the side - and especially as I never took out this individual during the season so far...yes they had a tough race after mistakes early on, but taking it out on someone trying to better themselves (a lap ahead) is not the answer.

Right, I've sort of gone off on one, but it's alright, nobody reads these blogs - so I guess that's my way of saying "what you did was wrong and I didn't like it" in the calmest way possible.

I continued that evening by filling in (hosted) race dates to my calendar - most after that critical April 12th date (me going back to Uni) but we'll see how everything plays out.

So after the MOFO race, I did a few - okay, countless races using the AI at Hockenheim and having an absolute blast putting different open wheel cars together and racing them - Hockenheim is a really overtake-friendly circuit - especially the "Outer" layout which makes races using slipstream-dependent cars a BLAST!

It was about 2 to 3 when I got bored and had dinner. Pizza, twas delicious.

I went to bed at 4 or 5 or so ha ha.

Wednesday 10th March

I woke up at 9 - 10am (ish), considered doing the 12:15 Week 13 GT3 Challenge race, realised I hadn't finished writing this blog...or had breakfast and decided to push it back to the 1:15pm race (the race starting 1:45, but registration beginning half an hour before)

I registered for said race and even got to qualifying before my internet went down for a solid 10 seconds (this disconnected me from of the session).

Since today marks the 4th anniversary of John Surtees' death, I wrote a little piece on the iRacing Forums in memory of him and to remind people (who may have forgotten) that it was today.

Whilst writing, it passed 1:45pm - which was when the registration for the 2:15pm race begins - and as I like to have the MAXIMUM amount of practice, this "mildly" annoyed me and I went downstairs to have lunch (honestly I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I had lunch with my family without it being put under clingfilm - but this was definitely a first.

Following a very delicious lunch of pasta, veg and sausages, I returned upstairs and competed in the 2:45pm race which started at 2:15pm.

Surprisingly, for the second day in a row, the race went very well. I qualified 7th and finished 7th - 0.048 seconds behind 6th place. I hovered around that position, but only claimed 7th in the last three laps (after the driver ahead spun/lost control) Long Beach is up next and I know from experience that somebody is GOING to die!

"Just one more lap and I would have had you"

Onward from here, Ferrari launched their 2021 Livery.

The 2021 Ferrari F1 Car

It's....Interesting. I personally don't agree with the green Mission Winnow logo on the back, but the fade into burgundy/purple is very interesting and something I think we can only properly judge in natural light.

And that's it! That's the end! That's the finish! That's all 10 2021 F1 cars revealed and reviewed...it's been fun! The next thing to look forward to is the couple of days Pre-season testing at Bahrain this weekend and then the Grand Prix in April.

To finish up today, I took screenshots at the MOFO race at Donington Park (last Tuesday) and they will be going up on MOFO's Facebook Page whenever I can be bothered or whenever I have the time - Week 13 is quite busy at the moment, but I'm managing it and at the moment feel better than I have done on previous Week 13's (weather that's because it's lockdown and I have nothing to do, am doing well in my races or have no work to submit/work on yet - I'm not sure.)

Anyway, Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed and I'll see (?) you all in a couple of days!