Charging Through A Difficult January

Hello and welcome back to another blog, it's been a while!

On writing this blog, next (iRacing) Week marks the 3/4 point in the Season -

WHERE HAS THE SEASON GONE?!?!

AND INDEED WHERE HAS JANUARY GONE?!!?!?

Season 1, 2023

I've had a wild old Season, so, as a quick summary:

Out of 7 total races I've done this season, I've only finished 2 in the Top 9 - my first two races of the season.

As always with racing - this has been partially down to bad luck and partially down to doing the wrong thing whilst in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After an absolutely stellar start to the season with two back-to-back Top 5's, I got caught out by a dodgy re-join at Monza - and on Lap 5 had to make a comeback from 18th with the same amount of laps remaining.

~

A few weeks later, I returned to my rig and had my very first race of 2023: The 2023 ROAR Before The 24 - always a massive favourite on the calendar.

For this race, I'd be starting 34th - I knew I was in for a long day.

ROAR was very much a bitter-sweet ordeal - and I should be very proud of 16th with the 6th lowest iRating in the entire field - but at the same time, it was very much a "couldda, shouldda, wouldda" sort of ordeal - a first incident costing me 11 positions, and then a second costing me 7.

Just like I said the year before "had the cone not got stuck under my car...." - in the same way, "Had I not become one with the Rear Bumper - or missed my pit-box...."

And that's what 2024 is for....

In my two most recent Formula 4 races, I've also been caught up in silly incidents - but I'll go into more detail in a minute.

15/01/2023

On this day, back in 2022, I achieved 1060 iRating. Since then, I haven't been under 1000 iRating - marking the first year in my career that I haven't dipped below 1000 iRating!

This time next year, I'd ideally want to make that 1.4K - but let's see how that goes.

~

Following a...relatively successful ROAR Before The 24, I headed back to Cornwall less than four days after previously going, for another 5 Hour drive.

Upon arrival to my brother's place, we loaded up the car (about 3/4 of all the stuff needed) before I headed to Maccies for Dinner and then headed to the Premier Inn to settle in to a sweet slumber.

16/01/2023

The next morning, I had a small breakfast of Bacon, Sausage and a Pain Au Chocolate before returning to my brother and loading the rest of the bags/his belongings into the car.

Instead of heading straight home, my brother's partner suggested we go on a little road-trip to some of the English Heritage sites.

- King Doniert's Stone

- Trethevy Quoit

- Hurlers Stone Circles (Featuring a town called "Minions")

Following this, we dropped my Brother's partner off in Plymouth (at the station) before both (me and my brother) returned to the Isle Of Wight.

17/01/2023

Whilst over, my brother helped me apply for some jobs. As I was now home, I could now practice like crazy for the iRacing Daytona 24 Hours.

Formula 4/IR-04/Formula D

Week 6: Okayama

Wednesday (18th Jan.) rolled around once again - and it was once again raceday.

Okayama is a firm favourite track of mine - I've always finished in the Top 10 or retired here.

I eventually qualified 8th - a solid effort.

The Race

After the typical Lap-1 shenanigans, I was side by side with P10, myself in P9.

He braked later into Turn 1 and got the job done.

Halfway around the lap, P12 braked a little bit too late for the first hairpin, shafting into the back of P11 - who was side-by-side with me after also missing his braking point - P11 recovered, but then proceeded to take his line as if I wasn't on his inside - us both coming together - me ending up with steering damage.

At Monza (the previous round) - I remembered to select "Fast Repair" - however, I didn't remember to unselect fuel and tyres - and lost a heap of time whilst the team fuelled my car and changed my tyres.

Ironically, at Okayama, I ensured to un-select/un-tick the fuel and tyres option - but I didn't select "Fast Repair" - so emerged from the pits with the same damage I entered with.

After a 40-second penalty for cutting the pit-entrance, I was quickly back out on track - and desperate to make positions - emerging in 16th with P17 engaging in battle on my out-lap. Behind him? the leader.

In letting the leader by, P17 backed off slightly.

Lap by lap, I'd climb through the order - not by on-track battles, but through others having perils.

In all honesty, it was a very uninspiring race - my only achievement being not being lapped.

19/01/2022

On Thursday (19th), it was my 22nd Birthday (wahey). Being 22, it was quite understandably a low affair - I'm an adult - I'm old - I wasn't expecting anything crazy.

My birthday was good. calm, but good - I got some nice gifts - clothes and books, but I only asked for a single thing, and recieved it.

That evening, we played a family board game - which ended a very nice low-key day.

20/01/2022

On Friday (the day before Daytona 24 Hours), I was asked if I wanted to go out for a belated birthday meal at a resturant I requested - as it was the night before Daytona, timing was far from ideal, and I suggested it be done after Daytona (and indeed our trip to Germany).

To moderate the length of this blog, I will split this into 2 Parts.

See You Next Blog.