Big Blog. Big Events. Big Thoughts.

Good Morning! It's 10 in the morning, and it appears I've woken up on the right side of the bed!

Sunday 21st March, 2021

My race on Sunday afternoon (5pm) was an exciting one.

After only putting in a (clean) banker lap during qualifying, we would be starting 49th - we had a long day ahead of us....

Despite this - we were hopeful - Antonio said that if he had managed to complete the flyer (flying lap), he'd qualify roughly 27th - there's our goal for the race

Not four corners later, almost the entire field ahead of us had crashed in an almighty pile-up...dozens and dozens of cars would be piled into one another, causing millions of pounds in damage. I'd thank Antonio for botching up qualifying slightly...any further forward and we would have been right in the thick of it. Except from a nice little "booty boop" (relatively hard hit up the rear) we escaped scott-free - our steering was fine, we hadn't gained any aero damage and over half-a-dozen cars had reset to the pit-lane - the track had cleared up and were off, crossing the line after the first lap in 41st.

Antonio only continued to deliver - soon being in 36th.

Antonio would finish his double stint in 24th - an "upset" significant other bringing his stint to an early close - but him being able to stay out long enough to not have to do a late "splash and dash" (pit-stop for fuel in the dying moments of the race) I never knew what happened to Antonio after that - but I had a job to do, and that was to bring her home.

I got in wished Antonio luck and set off out of the pit-lane.

In the final hour, I got the car up to 21st - weather that was because of people "splash-and-dash"-ing or weather I was up to the pace, I don't know - but it was one hell of a positive way to end quite a difficult weekend.

Tuesday 23rd March, 2021

I realise I've missed Monday, but Monday was not overly interesting. A lecture on Radio News and that's all I can really remember.

Onto Tuesday, and it was the final MOFO Race of the Season. The guys had kept it a secret until 3:53pm on Tuesday. We'd be racing at Daytona Roval. Nice.

Before that though, I'd head out to my local Town Centre to get a little bit of footage for my assignment due on Friday.

I'd start off by taking some general shots of outside the buildings, before driving to the top of a multi-storey car-park and getting some incredible shots from there.

Following this, I'd go inside and be hit with a sense of "surrealness" - the door was open but it was deadly silent - was I meant to be here? Was it open?

I looked down on the shopping centre through the windows of the lift (shaft). There were workers and just as I was about to turn away, I saw some legs far below - legs which belonged to a civilian. Okay, it was open.

The Shopping Centre was incredibly surreal (as said before) - it was like it (the shopping centre) didn't know if it wanted to be open or closed. I could probably count the people walking around on one hand. (almost)

I noticed that there was a maximum of two shops open: Wilko and Poundland. Everything else had their metal shutters closed and darkness within (Santander having a couple of workers inside)

I decided I wanted to mark this very bizarre/peculiar day - not only did I take photos - but I also bought a £3 Poundland Truck (And some PickUps).

The deal with the truck was that I wanted something with Pounland branding to remember the time I went to the Town Centre and only two shops in the entire centre were open.

It was about 4:30pm (latest) when I headed back out into the sunlight - took some more shots and then drove home.

A little later I'd start the final MOFO "Hare And Tortoise" race of the season. Race 1 would go absolutely phenomenally - starting 8th and finishing 5th - with the Top 6 being a reverse Grid, I'd be on 2nd position for race 2.

I was alongside Nick Daman - my rival for quite some time.

During the rolling start I was told to keep up with the pace/safety car...and I did, forgetting the fact that the leader sets the pace, and Nick set it...quite far back from the pace car....

Long story short - I got a 30 second stop-go penalty for overtaking/being ahead of the leader. After a rare P2 start alongside a season rival, this was incredibly painful - especially as I was fighting for a Top 3 in the AM Championship - alas - shit happens - my bad, lesson learnt, nobody taken out.

That marked a very tough end to my last full MOFO Season in a while - I've got University coming up in less than 22 Days (3 Weeks or so) so if there is another MOFO League, I'll probably only attend the first couple of races before leaving the group in peace and quiet. My last lecture/assignment is due on the 21st May - so a May - September league or Season may be a huge possibility.

Wednesday 24th March, 2021

Wednesday was a rather big day for a good few reasons - and they all started early!

I woke up shortly after 8:00am/8:30am as we had (yet another) viewing early on at 9:30am. As I anticipated the "viewers" - I wrote a little paragraph....

It was one year since Joe Bradley posted on his Facebook that his iRacing Group "MOFO" were doing a Skip Barber practice/race at Watkins Glen (kicking off me asking if it could be turned into a league and MOFO Cup/Championship/Tuesday Evening Leagues) being kicked off. It's been quite the year for me and MOFO - so, I just thought it'd be nice to remember that day.

Shortly after, I'd email UWR (UWRacing) informing them that the F3 Cup at Donington on 24th April had been cancelled - from there we had a nice discussion via email about diary dates and that students were back in the workshop etc. etc.

So once I'm back in Wolverhampton on 12th April - I'm sure everything will be firing back on all cylinders again and UniBlog and maybe even RaceBlog or Race reviews will be a thing - but I'm firing off into the distance - let's take it day by day, week by week news by news.

Following on from this, I realised it's 20 Days from when I go back to University - which scared me a bit (and still scares me - gotta start packing!)

In addition to all of this, Wednesday was also my race-day. The GT3 Challenge was at Sebring.

GT3 Challenge Sebring

I was in high spirits after I qualified 7th - this was higher than my 9th place start at Watkins Glen which ended in a podium finish....unfortunately, the drivers I was competing with had different ideas.

I was plum last out of the 18 strong field...I guessed it would be another of those "last to ?" sort of races. as I returned to racing speed I checked how the steering and areo felt. They felt alright. Calamities throughout the lap meant that I was up to 13th as I crossed the line to start the second lap and then 10th a lap later.

By Lap 6, I had been battling the #12 car for a good few laps....until this happened.

Two laps in a row on Lap 6 and 7 - we made contact. Half (my friends/contacts) say it's my fault, half say it's his fault - at the end of the day, he got the position and....well, that's pretty much all there is to it really - me personally, I don't think he should have been trying anything from that far back - but I understand that I may have braked too hard/too early or was going too slow - I was just keeping it consistent and trying to keep out of trouble.

If I wasn't there would he have made the corner? Not my place to say - but he gained 20 odd iRating out of the race and I still gained 10 - Pushing me up to 1074 - 26 More and I'm at the magic 1K. Sebring is first, followed by the GT3 Challenge and VRS GT at Daytona Oval ending (before Uni) at Lime Rock Park - so a couple of races left to collect the remainder.

Lastly on Wednesday - I got back into Dissassembly 3D a game where you get to carefully (or uncarefully) take apart items piece by piece - one by one.

This used to be an Antique Car

The next piece of this blog is a little darker, so if you are sensitive or do not wish to read hard/tough/difficult/negative topics, then I advise you to not read any further.

I appreciate you reading this blog and others before - and I will see those that choose not to read on, in the next Blog

Thank You,

- Robin

How Am I?

"I'm Fine."

Well, I'm not really fine but I have to be strong and show that I'm fine (act fine). On the outside I'm fine, but on the inside? I'm concerned - I've got stuff going on - my Public Affairs assignment was a total flop, this Television News Production assignment is looking to be going the same way, but I'm trying.

To add to my stress - the Sebring 12 Hours is this weekend - I'm doing it with Samuel Thurtell and William Burfield

I wanna move out with my girlfriend and friend Evie (Annie could be in a better place to be honest) people I know are dying left right and centre (used to be people I didn't know and were too old for me/past my knowledge - but I don't know - in the last 5 - 10 Years an awful lot of people I've known (by name or face) have passed - and as time goes on that elevator will only continue to take people I know - Schmitz, Walker and my neighbour all passing within a fortnight of one another. Murray Walker Sabine Schmitz (I remember watching her on TopGear), Antonie Hubert, (won at Monaco) Jules Bianchi, Dan Wheldon (2011 - I was 10. Just getting properly into motorsport - only saw his accident) Justin Wilson Grant Imahara Drew Johnson Stirling Moss John Surtees Niki Lauda and most recently my neighbour I visited when I was a little kid.

Kobe/Kobe Bryant

Terry Wogan

Steven Hawkins

Irrfan Khan (actor who appeared multiple times in Jurassic Park/World Movies)

Naya Rivera, Cory Monteith and Mark Salling - Recently getting into Glee in 2020 - 2021 getting to know and watch these characters for the 5 Seasons of Glee I've watched is absolutely heart-breaking.

I've currently an incredibly suicidal friend who I will leave unnamed but I'm currently talking to and talking out of. If the time comes, the fact I'm so close to them (as a friend) and have known them since secondary school - this will probably the hardest on the list to deal and come to terms with.

My parents have had to deal with the loss of many of their childhood heroes and idols - and as depressing as it may be - I will and do too. People I know and love and love to watch will go - I'm young, 20, and there's people I love several decades older than me that too will have to pass - heroes of the past F1 eras, heroes that will leave MORE than a legacy like David Attenborough, Her Majesty and at one point even my parents - but I don't want to think about that at the moment.

I'm feeling a bit of stress, doubt excitement and a tiny bit of fear - but I think the best quote for the situation is:

"This Too Shall Pass"

I'm only scared about the weekend - going back to Uni - Monday will come and I will have a few things less to worry about - come the 29th March, when I see my girlfriend - still further fears will fade - come April 12th when I return to Uni and leave iRacing behind, my fight for iRating will have a brief pause.

Come the summer, when the days are long and the weather is warm, maybe I'll have concerns about moving, but if that's all I'm concerned about - then that's much greater than at the current moment.

As for iRating and unimportant shizz, I'm just learning the sheer unimportance of well...everything - come back to this day in a year - will I remember it? Will I care? I mean I've come from 600 and I thought I was "safe" (or well "could be worse") and now look at me - 1072 iRating (Over 1000 More!) and arguably safer - as I said before - this too shall pass - come 6 months, 1 year, 10 years - nobody will care about today or my iRating or anything - it's just so meaningless and pointless to worry - the things that are important are my health (physically and mentally), my studies and my love life.

How Will This Look In 6 Months? A Year? 10?

I wanted to end on a lighter note. Just so that those that read won't leave thinking "well, that was horrible" - more "he's still got a sparkle in his eye - he's still got things to be positive and look forward to" I know I don't usually go off on talking about death and difficult subjects like this - but I don't know, it was on my mind and I guess a blog is the best way to relieve that sensation of wild thoughts in my mind.

If you did get this far, I thank you for reading - sorry it's been a bit depressing, and I'll see you all next blog. See you!