Still alive.

Been off simulation racing for a while. At around this time last year, I felt like I was spending too much time with iRacing. Given the awesomeness of the game, other things were taking a hit. So, I gave myself a self-imposed one year off gaming to make sure it was not an addiction.

I returned to gaming having set up the wheel etc. again this last month. What I realise is that games have moved on, and I need to play the older stuff or, the newer stuff with the lowest setting. No worries.

I did not reinstall iRacing. Nothing to do with the subscription, because I still have an active 2-year subscription. It is mainly due to the two reasons below:

1. It's just that I do not want to dedicate the kind of time required to be good at it. 
2. I need to play iRacing on its schedule. Not when I want to. Else I am limited to just practising. And, most of the real racing happens at a time that is too late/ early for my timezone.

I still follow the racing on the YouTube telecasts through various channel subscriptions. And, I continue to root for the Black Adder Motorsports guys when I see them in a race. 

So, for now, it is DiRT RALLY, which is the latest in the DiRT series, which is their attempt to return to proper rallying. But, having played iRacing in the full sim fashion, I play this with no driver aids and in car view. It is a good game, but let me warn you, 26GB to download.

As you can see, I'm on DiRT RALLY through STEAM.

And when I just want to do some mindless stuff, EURO TRUCK SIMULATOR 2. 

Just thought I would let you know since the blog has been asleep for a year. I will update progress on this as I go.

Later!

DiRT RALLY Launch video

This is one of the launch videos, you can see the full DiRT RALLY playlist on YouTube too.

Dev Diary

Some of the developers speaking about the process. They have made it very realistic for this version. Take a bow, CodeMasters.

2015 iRacing Daytona 24 this weekend.

The iRacing Daytona 24 is this weekend. I'm going to be rooting for the GTC Crew team, which has couple of my Black Adder Motorsport teammates in it.

You can watch it LIVE by clicking on the bottle below! Beverages are ready and waiting

The right brew, for the GT Cup Crew!

Read more >> to view iRacing's awesome announcement video.

Black Adder Motorsport - Race at Donnington

It was a private session with the Black Adder Motorsport teammates. So, won't say much today, but will leave you with some images. I still need too get  a livery, but I will wait till I get a spotter color finalised. Till then I will continue to run the Wild Dogs Racing livery.

Race start.

BMW Z4 GT3 - First public practice

After the last couple of private tests at Okayama, I had not touched the BMW Z4 GT3, since I wanted to concentrate on iGTC and races within that. Somethings came up however (more sometime else) which has made me now concentrate on this car again.

Ran a few session with the my teammates at Black Adder Motorsport, Richard Brazier, Gianluca Belardinelli and Paul Rogers . You helped a lot, not only when you were in car guiding me, but even when you were just discussing among yourselves about corners that you had problems with. Initially I did not face the same problems, because I was too slow to face it. As I got quicker, the problems that were being discussed, became relevant to me too.

L-R : Richard, Gian and myself.

We jumped a couple of Open Practice sessions before each of us headed our ways for the night. Mine went like this:

Caddies; those irritating things.

That was my impression till I watched a part of the race with John King (in the Kia) and I took the CTSV out on the track. I spun a few times and gave up, since our team session in the mustang was starting.

Just a few hours ago, I decided to tame this thing that I could not keep pointed in the right direction for the life of me for a few laps in a stretch. I thought it would be good practice in throttle control, that may help with my Mustang driving.

I got to know the outfield, the tyre barrier and other American vehicles a lot. ;)

The thing is that, I had so much fun,

2015S01W06 - Bathurst 40 min - Race 02

n - 4

Where n=grid position.

Seems like finishing 4 places down from the starting spot is the rule of the day. Started this race in 4th place. Looking at the starting grid, I new keeping 4th would be hard, but wanted to fight for a top 5.

In Black Adder Motorsport livery

Another reason I wanted to do well, was that I finally had the confidence in the Mustang to run the team livery. The bar has been set so high in BAM, I feel odd running the official livery when I am slow and not so sure. The reason why I have an alternate set of liveries for all my cars.

2015S01W06 - Bathurst 40 min - Race 01

Okay!

I finished my first race of the week. First race that is longer than 40 minutes for me. When I signed up for the race, there were around 35 signups. Pretty large field is what I thought, but it split**.

For someone who didn't get any decent qualifying I was surprised to be on pole position for the race. I think this is my first pole in iRacing yet.

Lead car. Something I am not used to being.