An Insanely Busy Week
At last. A moment to share what on earth has been going on over the past few weeks or so, because in the run up to Christmas the craziness level has been yanked up to 100! Thursday 5th December, 2019
I never usually talk much about what's going on behind the scenes, because it doesn't really affect iRacing, but it's time for a change. On the 5th December, 2019, a random British iRacer by the name of Luke posted a forum post on the "UK/Ireland" Thread within the iRacing forum. It stated that following him finishing his first year on iRacing, he has upgraded his setup, and was selling his old gear. This consisted of a Logitech G920, Playseat Revolution and Offical Playseat Mat. he was selling it for a total of £200. Being a poor, little, college boy (Whimpers) with a low, but stable income, I asked him if I could pay him in weekly instalments.
He jokingly replied "£200 in Week 1", not realising I was serious (which I was totally fine with, as I understood the joke). I would have then returned with "I'll make that £29.00 a day" - alas, someone got in there before me, saying that:
Let him pay in weekly instalments"
To which I responded "Thanks, being a college student isn't the easiest lol, I've got a side job (hence having the £100), but a good job comes with good experience comes with age" As I said before, Luke thought I was joking, so apologised for any potential offence caused and asked me what gear I was using To this, I informed him of my Thrustmaster T150, and Ikea Chair. He found out about my iRacing Team, and said it looks really cool (Thanks Luke!!), that I seem like a nice guy and that I am really passionate about Sim Racing. And then he surprised me. He said that I could have it for free. He wanted it to go to someone that'll enjoy it - which nowadays, is surprisingly hard to find - some sell stuff on for profit, others use things once, and never touch it again, and some just don't think it's for them. Coming from Humble Beginnings, owning a Speedlink Drift OZ, before upgrading to a Thrustmaster T150. Wheel this was an opportunity that I couldn't dare turn down.
And with Luke living only an hour or two from my house, it was settled. From here, everyone congratulated and commented on Luke's generosity. It shows that there is still hope for the human race after all, we just have to clone Luke a few dozen times. We arranged that I would pick up the wheel on Sunday, which later moved to Saturday. It's also worth mentioning that YouTube Rewind - Sorry, WatchMojo Rewind came out on this day, but I rather not endure the pain of that suffering again.
Friday 6th December On the 6th of December, 2019 I finished my "Important Imola" race, following that I thought I could simply do the following Week 13 race at Tsbukuba...but how wrong I was... Judging by the amount of college work I had, I chose not to do the Japanese round, which was a very good decision, since I caught up on a lot of work, Sunday was the same too, and I continued to pump out the assignments.
On the same day as this, the first of the large influx of new drivers. Tamás Sipos. The Hungarian used to be in the team, before mysteriously dissapearing, it was good to see him again. I must quickly also take the time to apologise to my driver John who suggested
"I'd hold off on accepting any new drivers for a while."
Which I didn't ignore, but simply couldn't resist the temptation of accepting the requests of new drivers coming in. This, unfortunately, wasn't the end though. Coming from 13 Drivers and raising to roughly 20 or so gave me a very warm feeling... The weekend of work (cough) then just flew by.
Monday 9th December, 2019 On Monday the 9th December, the work continued to rain down upon me, and I had to unfortunately announce that I was not going to be endurance racing with them for a while - I would still manage the team, however I wouldn't race in the 6 hours endurance series. This would either be replaced by work, or the Porsche iRacing Cup. It was also on this day, that we were informed that Kabort Motorsport was legible to do the qualification race for the Winter 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Tuesday 10th December, 2019
Spilling over from yesterday, we originally signed up in a TCR, as the GT3 Grid was full, but according to the message received, we were able to race in the Mercedes AMGT GT...the confusion continues however, as when I asked another admin, he said that we were still in the TCR... The plot further thickens, as I notice the oldest driver in Kabort Motorsport Tim Kasigkeit in a different team, in the Winter Nurburgring 24 Hours... I gave the owner/manager of the team a message asking about Tim, and he responded saying that although Tim hadn't raced for his team yet, he (may) do the one on the 21st December and "this one" (presumably meaning the main race on the 28th December. Further conversation revealed that he was already part of the team before Sebring, raced with Kabort at Sebring and now is planned to race for two 24 hour races before 2020... Apparently it was said that his (current) team "wasn't fast enough", but I am in no place to make speculations. According to a quotation: Tom Daalmann 11/10/2019
"Well we aren't the most competitive team, but we got some good guys"
Tim Kasigkeit 11/10/2019
"but compared to my team..." - There is no evidence to back up this quotation, It's all speculative The investigation goes further, as The Driver does not know how Tim found - or chose his team to race with, as there is no invite link (publically) available, and there is no advertising. What's more confusing - is that evidence of Tim being in the team - are all but gone - not on the iRacing Teams listing, I am unable to find the message which said that he was in the team, and he doesn't appear on the Winter 24 Hours of Nurburgring Discord server either. My suspicion only arises slightly further when Aurimas Jenciulevicius is sitting in the team - he left a day after joining, (yonks ago) and shortly after Spa Francorchamps, could he have something to do with the situation? The next driver of Kabort's Influx also joined on this day. - this time it was Marcelo Valente's turn. An Aussie - good for the team, both in spirits (humour) and in Time Zones. He bought along with him Paulo Ogliani, who joined a day later. They used to be in a team of two, however with so few two drivers, problems can be caused if one driver isn't available. Following this, I also caused a little stir (a good stir) on the forum. Someone wanted to know how to do race-by-race analysis, and I not only provided to him, but 4 others too! Wednesday 11th December, 2019 The week of chaos continued, as on this day Paulo Ogliani as well as an incredibly enthusiastic Turk by the name of Mete Taha Kose joins the group, and we unfortunately decide to call it quits for the Winter Nuburgring after those who wanted to drive the Mercedes AMG GT3 couldn't, and we were left with only 2 drivers actually wanting to drive the TCR.
Thursday 12th December 2019 Despite Christmas Parcels arriving for the family, Thursday was incredibly mellow, with not too much happening. The 2020 iRacing Special Events Calendar came out - missing the Glen 6 Hours and Roar Before The 24, But I've got ELMS, I'm not too fussed.
Friday 13th December, 2019. Oh boy. This was an interesting one. If I had to prove Friday the 13th was evil, I would point to this day, because this will definietly go down in history in one of Britain's unluckiest Friday's. I don't mean to bring politics into racing, but the Conservatives (Tories) won the General Election. Boris Johnson will continue to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. What will happen, and what he'll do is for us to find out - but there are the facts, that's what's happened, and some are happy, and some aren't. In more positive news, Being 12 days until Christmas Eve, I thought I'd give my team a little surprise I had been working on for a week or so...a little song.
It didn't get too much reception, but I believe it's the thought that counts, and not the reaction you get.
On the subject of music, I also submitted a large assignment which was to plan out how my (to be started) Music Video for an already existing song would look, and in depth research about the artist (who made the song) and their persona. To conclude this day, a driver sent me a private message, and a message on Discord telling me he's interested in joining Kabort Motorsport. I said that I'd send an invite once he had reached Class B, which would be in a few weeks. Saturday 14th December, 2019 Ahhhh the weekend at last finally I can rest my elderly bones.... Or so I thought! Today was the day that I was going to pick up my dearest baby - the rig... And what an adventure it would turn out to be. I left after lunch - as me and Luke had agreed. The start of my journey was average, a nice, normal Motorway drive...until I reached London. The closest I've ever been to London before this day was the M25. And now I was going into the heart. First up was the M4... As we slowly drew into urban London, the road lifted up...and I was met with a spectacular view....The sun setting over a concrete jungle...it was simply spectacular. Views on both sides were photo worthy. If there's anything to compare it to....it was like being on one of those sky-trains (monorails) you get at Zoos, and you look around you and you can see off in the distance - it was a little annoying though, because at 70mph, you've got to keep an eye on the road, and there's so much you miss
As we were lowered into the city centre, there was sirens behind us, and everyone scuffled to the side to let a large emergency vehicle through....It's only now that I finally realise how busy London actually is...it's mayhem! - there's cars everywhere, Emergency services rushing to and fro (there were surprisingly so many!) and you are constantly queuing...and the roundabouts....they are MASSIVE, and CONFUSING!!! Where I'm from, it's usually a circle of up to like 6 or so exits, each spread out from one another, each give you time to plan and execute - London is very different. These roundabouts you've got to plan from the moment you get in your car. Fortunately, the remainder of the junctions were traffic lights. I did see loads of Fire Engines around a rather large building, but I cannot recall where this was. I believe somewhere near Manor House. Anyway, I survived, got through, and I finally arrived at his road. After a little bit of Karfuffle, I found his property and he and I loaded the gear into the back of the car. I said thank you and just like that I was on the road again. On the way home, I went past the cover up Grenfell Tower, and it made me shudder. So much life lost, I couldn't have imagined what it could've looked like on the night of the Fire. Truly horrifying. My deepest condolences go to all those affected by this tragedy, and may those who perished rest in peace as they stay in our hearts and memories forever. This was a truly insane week and I hope you enjoyed reading.
