Locked On iRacing

I have been snowed under with work and mental health problems for the past 3 or 4 weeks but I decided I would sit down and actually record something for you all before we get to the last round of V8 Vets for season 21.

Officials have been very light on for the past few weeks because of life and they just have not been very interesting with small fields with a large spread of skill levels.

So this episode I discuss my time at Aragon, Motegi and Algarve in the V8 Vets rounds 7, 8 and 9.

Hope you all enjoy and thanks for your support while I have been away.

Only two races for week 6 as I struggle with mental and physical burn out from the content creation, Supercars racing, The Bathurst 1000 and real life work. Both races were at Road America in the Supercars Mustang but they could not have been under different circumstances.

The official this week saw the lights turned on on the Mustang as the server was set to sunset to make it pretty; however, the sun set way too quickly in the server, which had the field starting in the dark. On a track without lighting to show the way, the Mustang's headlights had to do all the heavy lifting. With server maintenance around the corner and the confusion around that time because of daylight savings, it was a race we didn't expect to make it to the end, which gave it a very laid-back feel till we realised the server wasn't going down and the race would be official.

Thursday then saw V8 Vets head to Road America with round 5 being a 250 km race. I had put in a lot of practice for this one and it all started coming together in the warm up before the race. After an issue in qualifying I started in an okay position but with a very early safety car I found myself near the front and a battle for the podium. With no more safety cars it became a race of high pace but no mistakes. After only a couple of mistakes and some issues with cars behind me, it was clear I was going to get the podium, but my ego had the last word and almost cost me all that effort.

Anyway, there will be no podcast next week at this stage, as I have had a week off to get my motivation back. Thank you, everyone, for your understanding and support, and I catch you on stream or in the next episode.

This week I ran mostly Supercars races and the led me to Long Beach and it didn't start well at all.

After the high of Bathurst the week before I went in confident but that quickly disappeared after the first practice laps at Long Beach. The whole week followed that trajectory, even though I put the effort in and learnt the quickest way around the track. I found myself safe at Long Beach but once again, little mistakes cause lots of problem on a track like that.

Finally, I jumped on an MX5 race for a bit of fun, which led to a few weird interactions with some, maybe drunk, American iRacers.

Overall, there is an improvement this week, so bring on week 6

I grab some time out of Buzza's busy schedule to chat to him about our recent attempt at the iRacing special event, the Bathurst 1000. We chat a little bit about what Bathurst means to us and our history with both the car and the track within iRacing itself and the journey that it has been for both of us to actually give the iRacing special event a go for the first time ever.

We discuss the first stint with myself in the car and the expectations we had at this stage of the race and the stress of trying to survive in the race when it was clear that was not the most important goal of some of those around us at the time.

We then discussed the way we settled into a rhythm finally and watched the mountain claim a lot of the cars around us as we expected it would. We talk about the strain of double stinging around the mountain and the toll that it can take on you.

Finally, we went through those final stages of the race where things got super tense, even though we had already blown our expectations clear out of the water and were more than happy to finish where we did but balance that with the ego wanting to hold on to just one place higher with two laps to go.

Last week has been chaotic for me in the iRacing world. Not only did I race in the special event that is the Bathurst 1000, but I also participated in two official series races at Mount Panorama, along with a Productions car series race and a V8 Vets race at Oschersleben. Now, I won't talk about the Bathurst 1000 experience in this episode, which will come at a later date, but this week was a special one, even without that.

I have a chat about my confidence levels out of the Tuesday night race in the Official series, the surprise 3rd place I got in the Productions series race at Oschersleben in the Toyota GR86 after battling for more than five laps with two other drivers in some of the most fun I have had in the sim so far.

After skipping forward to chat about my fuel strategy and how that has improved in the Supercar in America's time slot for Bathurst, I finally talk about the emotion and experience that came out of my V8 vets race in round 3, where I started 5th and finished 7th, but that doesn't even tell a fraction of the story.

Finally, I finish with a chat about how working in a team of like-minded and similar-aligning people has helped me get as far on my iRacing journey as I have so far. Without this team, there is no way I would ever have gotten as far as I have and experienced as much as I have in the sim racing world.

In this week's episode of 'Locked on iRacing,' I dive into my journey through Season 4 Week 3, highlighting my four Supercar races at Road Atlanta, where I saw real progress and held my own against tough competition. I also share insights on preparing for the upcoming iRacing Bathurst 1000 and take you along on my visit to the Next Level Racing HQ, where I participated in an incredible real-life sim racing event to support Beyond Blue and raise mental health awareness. Plus, I detail my experience on their impressive full-motion sim rig! Tune in for a mix of racing stories, sim rig reviews, and race prep tips. #Podcast #iRacing #SimRacing #MentalHealthAwareness

I am back and on my own again to recap the week that was season 4, week 2 in the officials series, and the first round of the V8 Vets league. I discussed the Production Cars Challenge Series race I did, where rain kept the field away, and my class only had 5 starters. Still, there was a lot of action in the race, and we got home in second place.

Then we went to the Supercars series, where we went to Virgina International Raceway. The team got second and third in the race, which was properly my best drive in the car so far. Then we jump over to V8 Vets, and I explain the massive highs and lows of the race, but in particular, how, on the last lap, I went from hero to zero and couldn't be upset with the result.

Finally, I headed to Monza for the GT3 sprint series, where I took the Mustang for a race. I didn't get the best result, but I had the best crash happen behind on the back straight. I mean, I couldn't have planned it better.

After the race recap, I chat about the current Supercars real-life series and what I think about the Supra being announced for the series in 2026. I outline how I would love to see the series fixed going forward and discuss why it is so important they make some changes.

To round out the episode, I announce that Buzza and I will be taking on the Mountain on the 5th of October and driving the Locked On Lads car in the iRacing Official Bathurst 1000. I explain why this race means so much to me and why it has taken so long for me to finally attempt this iconic race.

I am trying something different with the podcast and starting an racing journey vlog to go along with my racing because I really miss talking about my racing. So here, in this episode, I discuss what racing is, because for a lot of people new to the channel, the main question is "what am I playing?"

After that I discuss my progress on iRacing over the last few months in season 3 and how I have improved and what I focused my efforts on for the season. I discuss my troubles with the Supercar and how I have improved there along with my love for the Production car series.

I discuss the week 13 chaos and how much fun I had this time on that schedule and then focus on what is to come with season 4 of the 2024 racing calendar.

Finally I touch on the 3 hour itested race I did along with a tease for maybe a Bathurst 1000 attempt this year.

We have a chat about everything that happened along the way from Melbourne to Alice Springs.

In this episode, I sit with Brady Baldwin as we discuss his rise to qualifying for the Logitech G Pro Invitational and how joining SSR played a part in his Journey. We also chat about his dirt series ODSE and his trip to the USA to drive real-life dirt cars in states where dirt racing is such an important part of the culture.