I ran a qualifying session prior to the race, setting a 1:22.786 which allowed me to start in seventh-place in a race where I carried the number nine on my car (meaning I was the ninth best driver in the race according to iRating).

I got a good start and held seventh-place from then until lap three, but those first laps were intense! There was a large field of 14 and honestly I expected to be hit in the back in turn one, but no, every car got through cleanly!

So, starting lap three I managed to lose a position to a faster car, giving up seventh-place. One lap later I managed to make a pass on Neil Scheibelhut into the final turn, I crossed the line in sixth but lost the position again in turn one.

On lap five I had closed in on Scheibelhut ahead of me. We ran fairly closely until turn three when Scheibelhut spun off, joining Dave St.Onge and R. Montalban who had already spun, allowing me to gain fourth-place by the end of the lap.

I lapped as cleanly and consistently as I could with cars lining up behind me. Many times I expected either Morten Smidt or Anthony Larson who battled hard behind me to make a mistake and take me out. Thankfully though, they were superbly clean!

I came close to losing fourth-place on lap eight after I ran wide, but luckily the cars behind were busy fighting amongst themselves. On lap ten this worked out to my favor and as a car behind almost spun I gained just enough space to feel comfortable.

On lap 12 I moved into third-place after the race leader crashed in turn three.

By lap 15 Smidt was right on my tail and seemed a little faster, especially braking into turn one. We hadn’t been more than a few car lengths apart since the start of the race, but he seemed to be finding speed which I could not.

Starting lap 16 I was pushing hard to stay ahead, I braked a tiny bit late for turn one and Smidt finally managed to get alongside, passing me into turn two. Unfortunately for him, he then ran wide, I managed to sneak back past as he ploughed through the sand trap.

Things went my way for the rest if the race. I think Morten Smidt was still faster but he always caught backmarkers in the worst places and this just gave me the space to hold third-place for the finish.

I had one incident from going wide in turn two on lap 20. My fastest lap was a 1:22.347 on lap 12.

I ran a quick qualifying session on Friday, setting a 2:12.646 laptime that I was fairly pleased with. I knew I was probably capable of 2:11, so was really looking forward to racing over the weekend.

As things turned out I didn’t have time during the weekend and had to race on Monday. After joining the session and saying hi to Steve Claeys I had the unfortunate incident mentioned above. I then joined the grid for the race in second-place. Steve was starting first and the person I had the warm-up issues with lined up in third.

I got a good start but third-place Matej Sagmeister got a better one and took second from me around the first turn. It took until lap four before I managed to take second-place back.

Matej drove very aggressively to defend his position and with what had happened in warm-up, coupled with the fact that I’d started to get annoyed with him driving defensively, I had basically wound myself up. So when I had finally passed on lap four I continued to think about his driving rather than concentrating… This backfired on lap six when I spun after running wide in the first turn – this dropped me to fifth-place.

Starting lap seven I gained a position as Thomas O’Dowd spun ahead of me. Meanwhile I was pushing hard to catch Andrew Cherry and Matej ahead of me.

By lap eight I was closing in on Andrew in third-place. He had run wide before the esses and by the time he recovered I was glued to his gearbox. We started lap nine and both braked very late for turn one: I had to turn really tight to avoid running into him and managed to avoid contact as I took third-place.

I now had to push really hard to catch Matej who was running comfortably in second-place. I set my fastest lap of the race, a 2:12.433 on lap ten and I lapped just as fast until lap 13 when I caught up with him.

I started to move around a lot in an attempt to make Matej make a mistake and luckily for me he ran off the road on lap 14, handing me second-place. At the time I was glad to have taken the place without having to fight past defensive driving.

So I am happy with a second place finish, but know I could have won.

In those early laps I was going three-seconds slower than my basic race pace because of Matej and at the time that really annoyed me. I’m glad that I didn’t say or do anything at the time though because I normally don’t have any problem with defensive driving of that sort, my mood was obviously tainted by the warm-up incident, which I think he learned from – judging by the apology. Now I look back on it, hours and hours later, it was actually a really challenging race and that’s why we do this, isn’t it? He made me drive totally differently to how I had intended to, he got into my head, he kept me behind him and forced me to make a mistake even after I passed him. Watching the replay in those early laps it’s actually really interesting to watch what I was doing because without even realizing it I kept moving around in his mirrors and trying to make it look like I was going to pass when I had no intention to, and on lap four that is exactly what forced him into an error at the esses and led me to eventually pass at the end of the lap. Good fun!

I ran a qualifying session before the event and managed to get a 1:50.198 after five laps. That put me second on the grid in a race where I was the sixth highest iRated driver.

I got a great start and as mayhem ensued behind I managed to get by as the leader ran off the track ahead of me, putting me into first place by the second turn! I led the first lap and then starting lap two ran a little wide on my entry which allowed Brett Barker to squeeze by into turn four. I stayed in touch with the leader while Lincoln Miner closed in behind me.

By lap four Lincoln had got close enough that he was able to get by out of turn one, putting me into third-place, which is where I’d stay the rest of the race.

I ran the entire race incident free and set my fastest lap on lap five (1:49.723). Really pleased to run incident free and even more pleased to finish third in a race where I was rated to finish sixth.

The first race I slotted into the grid in ninth and held the number 16 on my car, this meant I was the lowest rated driver in the event. Still, looking at everyone else’s qualifying times I figured I’d probably be able to finish in the top-three if I didn’t make any mistakes…

I got a decent, safe start, but as usual I made the mistake of driving too safely. This always seems to happen to me and it’s incredibly annoying: I was much, much faster than those ahead of me, but they were all over the race track (and off it – I managed to avoid someone who span across the racetrack having ran wide out of the final turn), so with them being all over the race track, I stand back and wait for them to sort themselves out.

But, by waiting, by not shoving my nose into a multi-car battle, I leave myself open to the people behind because I am being forced to lap slower than I am capable! How annoying is that? To get passed not because you’re slower, but because you’ve reasoned that nobody infront of you is actually going anywhere! Honestly, on that first lap, they were crawling.

So, basically that’s the story: I dropped a few places, got annoyed at losing those places, made my own mistake running wide, slapped the wall under the bridge, damaged my left side and of course the person behind went to overtake on the right in the downhill… I had to stay left, with a damaged left side, and went off-track and into the fence.

I reset and rejoined the race in 12th, gradually making my way up to eighth without passing anybody on the track. My fastest lap was on lap 11 of 31 and was a 58.797 and this was especially annoying because I came out of the pits with the leaders and lost almost no time to them at all in the 26 laps I ran after the reset.

I also tried to join the race after and jumped the start. That race was done for literally before it began and I finished with less points that the race above netted me, so the race was dropped.

I am now standing eighth in Skip Barber Race Series points, 164 out of first and 80 out of second-place.

I like the track, so missing qualifying wasn’t that big of a deal but the number of registrants was really large. I ended up in the third of four splits! My race had 15 drivers, of which I was iRated as fifth but would be starting back in 12th.

I got a decent start and as usual in the Skip Barber Series saw some patient driving into the first turn. Due to a few errors from other drivers I had climbed to ninth-place by the end of the lap.

I made a pass for eighth out of turn one on lap two, but half way around the lap had to brake hard to avoid a multi-car crash ahead… Luckily I didn’t hit anything and when everything shook out I ended lap two in seventh-place.

It was very early in the race and I had quite a bit of speed I wasn’t using. I could see that many people around me were pushing too hard and starting lap three I let the car behind pass, figuring that his car number of 15 meant he would probably make an error later in the race.

A lap later I took advantage of an error by the car ahead into the first turn and slipped ahead, up into seventh-place now. Seventh became sixth half way around the lap when the #15 spun his car onto the grass.

After an error in the final turn of lap five I saw the car I had passed with a mistake it turn one close up behind me… Again, with it being early in the race I didn’t fight and let him go.

One lap later I was flipping through the screens of data available to me to see what my last laptime was, basically seeing if I needed to speed up, when I noticed I had passed my braking point for the first turn! I quickly locked it down but slid into the sand anyway, losing two positions! Luckily half way around the lap I was able to overtake one car who had spun, but I ended lap eight in seventh-place.

I pushed really hard for the next seven laps, setting my best lap of 1:22.339 during the run. It was now lap 15 of 22 and I had closed right in on the pack I had been leisurely following before my mistake…

Between then and the end of the race I led a bit of a charmed life; people just kept falling off the track infront of me! By lap 16 I was sixth, 19 I was fifth and 20 I was fourth – but it was then that I realised my trip to the sand had probably cost me a much higher finish as the car I had been following at the time was up in second-place… I had no time to catch them now and ran across the line on lap 22 in fourth.

It was a great run though. Coming from 12th to fourth isn’t easy for me… The only kind of annoying thing is that I really didn’t have to fight to finish where I finished… Still, maybe I’d see better luck on that front in the 500?

Fastest lap was 13, a 1:22.339. I had two incidents (trip into the sand and running wide once out of final turn).

I put in a qualifying time of 2:12.597 the previous day and felt pretty well tuned with the Skip Barber Formula 2000 around VIRginia International Raceway. The qualifying time put me second on the grid and being the tenth-rated driver I knew this was a field rated well above me… I was looking forward to taking advantage of my liking of VIR.

I noticed the third-place car creeping shortly before the green light and knew that he had jumped the start, I knew that I just needed to concentrate on not screwing up the first turn and I’d be in a great position to challenge for the lead later in the lap. Unfortunately that perfect start was taken from me when going into the turn I noticed the second-place car getting closer and closer to mine… I had no choice but to run off the track. It was either a spin or certain car contact followed by probable damage – and a spin.

I recovered and rejoined in last-place (12th). I quickly set about catching the pack as I knew that at this stage they’d still be bunched together and forcing each other to run slower than they were capable of alone. It didn’t take long before I caught the pack and moved past two cars going into the final couple of turns; Unfortunately into the final turn the car ahead had to brake sharply to avoid the car ahead of him, forcing me to react and yet again I was spinning off into the grass to avoid them. I crossed the line to end lap one in ninth-place, infront of the driver who had damaged their cars in the final corner.

I crossed the line to start lap two in seventh-place and considering I didn’t pass anybody, assumed this was due to crashes ahead of me I didn’t see.

Ending the third lap I was closing in on the battle for fifth when I saw them both spin ahead of me: Very similar to what I had to do in the NASCAR Class D race I ran this week I split the two spinning cars, missing each by a very small distance and crossing the line to start lap four in fifth.

I pushed really hard from lap four to lap eight, setting faster laptimes on each lap. By lap eight I caught the battle for third-place and after seeing how quickly I had closed them down, was given fourth-place by one of the cars ahead. It took another lap before I got close enough to the third-place car to make a pass attempt and when I did, he simply ran off the road. I think he didn’t think there was room – although I left him plenty – but whatever, I was in third-place.

I continued to push hard, hoping something might happen to the first or second-place cars to move me further up the finishing order, but it wasn’t to be. I finished third and still think that was an awesome result.

I set my fastest time on lap 14 of 14, a 2:11.932. I had four incidents (from two spins) in the race and took home 84 championship points.

I ran a qualifying session earlier in the week and was really just looking for a decent time. I set a 1:51.624. It wasn’t a great time, but it would get me infront of those who don’t post times in qualifying prior to races.

I joined the session and found that I would be seventh on a 13-car grid where I was rated as being the second best driver. Looking at these numbers I knew that I should be slightly better than most of the drivers I was racing with and with most of them I’d just have to be patient. After all, the iRating is calculated from finishing positions, not necessarily how fast someone is… Most of the time I find that if a driver with a larger number overtakes me in a race, he will make some kind of mistake later in the race which causes him to be back behind me where the iRating predicted.

Anyway, the race started and I got a pretty good start, holding my seventh-place. I did have a bit of trouble with one of the cars ahead who ran into the side of me out of the corkscrew and then almost spun coming out of the final turn on the first lap. I did manage to hold my position, but I became desperate to get away from him, lunging to the inside into the first turn to start lap two and again being turned into… He then spun as we came to the end of lap two, and along with a spin by the leader I now found myself in fourth starting lap three.

I began to come under a bit of pressure now from the car behind and for four laps held him there before finally pulling over to let him go. I figured there was a chance he would spin and give me the place back and if not, at least he wasn’t going to push me into making an error. He lasted from lap seven to lap eleven infront of me before spinning, giving me back my fourth-place.

One lap later I saw the second-place car spin ahead of me and managed to sneak around the outside of him before he rejoined. This put me up into third-place. I now felt a lot more comfortable with the car and track and had now started to lap in the 1:49′s. I decided to try to push and catch the new second-place car.

Over the last five laps I did get closer and closer, but simply ran out of time. I was slightly disappointed that I had started the race in such a leisurely fashion, but still with a third-place I had brought in 75 championship points – a massive haul for me.

My fastest lap was 8 of 16. Laptime was 1:49.325. I had two incidents: One when diving to the inside in turn one on lap two, the other when running wide out of the corkscrew.

Felt great to come away with a victory at Road Atlanta. Feel like I really have a handle on the Skippy like I had a few years ago (yes, years). I really had to work for the win, too. Full race: Part 1. Part 2. Race results.

This was another great race with a result that was great but disappointing. I simply could not find a way past the leader without wrecking him. I even let the 3rd-place guy past and when he got wrecked by the leader while trying to pass I decided 2nd-place was better than no place. Starting tenth and finishing second does feel good… Full race: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Race results.

I got a great start and led until we exited the oval. I braked badly, locked up and went very wide, letting 1 car past and almost dropping to 4th! Luckily I regained my composure straight away and set about chasing down the leader.

I reeled off a number of really nice laps while in 2nd, including a 1:11.915, and we had a really tight battle for position.

Much to my amusement, the instant I passed the leader on lap 7 I did exactly the same thing as I had on the first lap and let him by as I slid wide exiting the oval! I typed “lol” into the chat as I couldn’t believe I’d done exactly the same thing again.

We had another series of laps were we were very close to each other and it wasn’t until lap 16 when I got by him for good. He slapped the wall coming off oval turn 2 and damaged his suspension. During my charge to pass him I set my fastest lap of the race at 1:11.274! I took the lead on lap 16 and never looked back, only now having to worry about the backmarkers ahead of me!

Really feels awesome to win races, doesn’t it? After doing it last week at Road Atlanta in this series too I’m beginning to wonder what the hell is going on!

Full battle part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXm9pEOWLQQ
Full battle part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX-L9hgT-vI

Ok, so it has been a while since I made any kind of blog post whatsoever. There are a myriad of reasons for that, not least because I got into using Facebook to express myself rather than my blog. I think I’ll probably get more into this again though and also try to find my interest in photography again, too.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, Sheila and I decided we’re moving back to Chicago at the end of October. She misses her family and friends a lot and of course, my marriage comes before my work. We (well, I) drove to Chicago in August and have found a great apartment which we’ll rent until we’re stable enough to buy a place.

I’ve also bought firstly a 10 gallon fish tank (in July), soon after progressing to a 55 gallon fish tank. I’m getting pretty addicted and learning so much about the whole process of keeping fish. I’m keeping Tropical Freshwater fish (most breeds come from Amazon River fish, but some come from Asian rivers). Really enjoying this and if you follow me on Facebook at all, you’ve probably seen photos of my fish on the Wall.

My 55 gallon fish tank, complete with the dead guy's skull.

I’ve been involved with the setup of the new inRacing News Web site, which is a great site mixing iRacing news and real-world racing news from many different series.

I took over and then have been managing the companies Facebook page. I regularly post news items, screenshots – all the good stuff – there for people to share with their friends. It’s a way for iRacing members to keep in-touch, for ex/prospective-subscribers to see if iRacing now has that item they’ve been waiting for and also, it’s great viral marketing.

We sponsored Marcos Ambrose (one of my personal heroes as I have been watching him race since he raced in England, then followed him racing Aussie V8′s – a series I love) at Pocono. I got to go and now I’m probably ruined for attending a NASCAR race ever again. Why? Because I got to sit next to the crew chief on the pitbox and watch the race from there… It was an awesome experience and the level of interaction and access I had was just awesome. I shot and produced a quick testimonial from Marcos about the software and you can see that on the companies Youtube channel (which I’ve also been busy running)!

We also recently announced IndyCar will be coming to iRacing in the Fall of 2009. This is a huge deal for me personally and I’m extremely excited. During my school exams (when I was 16) my friend Kieron and I went back to his house (he had a PC, I didn’t) to play on my copy of (I owned it, he didn’t) Indy 500 – The Simulation. I had no idea who produced the sim, infact in those days I don’t think I knew there was any difference between a developer and a publisher. It’s now 20 years after that software was released and it’s incredible that I’m now working in the same office, just a few doors down from the man responsible. I had quite a part in the announcement (which took place at Infineon Raceway), as I was tasked with providing the first ever footage of the Dallara IndyCar in the simulation at nowhere other than Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I drove some laps in the very early version of the car available to me and put together a comparative video (meant for amusement and an indication of how far we have come) to be used in the press conference… Everybody seemed to find it almost as much fun as I did!

After the press conference, I was tasked with the duty of editing the press conference just like I had for the NASCAR press conference. I think I did a pretty good job with it and you can see the IndyCar edited footage here.

It was also pretty cool interacting with some people from IndyCar (and actually being recognized by someone from IndyCar by name who said they remembered me from RSC) while getting them the footage they needed to produce their own edit of the press conference. You can view that on their Youtube channel here.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what I have been up to recently. Now onto the thing I am up to now…

I’ve been trying to get a suitable ‘demo’ trial of iRacing put together for new members for a while and I finally managed to get it done. Until now, the only way to try iRacing without paying was either illegal and out-of-date by a long way, or provided you with two pieces of content that you would not be able to race in anger against others during your trial period. The Radical Sportscars promotion gave you your first month of iRacing membership, Silverstone Circuit, the Radical SR8 sportscar along with the basic content you normally get with a 1-month subscription, but as I said, the Radical is Class B – it takes longer than the trial period to be able to race that.

So what have I setup? Two new-member trials.

The first, aimed primarily at Papyrus simulation users who are still running Grand Prix Legends, includes a free first month, the Skip Barber Formula 2000, Virginia International Raceway and of course, the basic content normally included with a 1-month subscription (Pontiac Solstice, Legends Ford ’34 Coupe, SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Lanier National Speedway, Lime Rock Park, Oxford Plains Speedway, Summit Point Raceway, South Boston Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca).

So, why did I choose the Skip Barber Formula 2000? Because it’s a lot of fun and out of all the iRacing cars it drives the most like a car from Grand Prix Legends. You can also reach a Rookie 4.0 license within a few hours of membership and this will allow you to drive this car in official races.

Why did I choose Virginia International Raceway? This track is like a cross between Spa-Francorchamps and the Nurburgring in Grand Prix Legends. This track needs to be tamed and it can give you that sense of exhilaration and achievement which you until now believed could only be gotten after lapping the ‘ring. It’s also a very important track for your career within iRacing (it is used all the way up the ladder) and comes with seven (yes, seven) track configurations.

Any Tips? Yes. The SB2000 is a school car, it is supposed to be driven in a technically correct manner. You need to either be on the throttle or brake at all times to keep it stable; If you lift off the throttle completely in the middle of a turn, it will likely spin out on you for example. Think about where the weight of the car is moving to, be smooth and try to keep even a little bit of throttle down in each turn to keep weight in the rear.

To claim your free first month new account ‘SB2000+VIR’ version, go here, use promo code: REMOVED DUE TO ABUSE

The second promo code allows Papyrus simulation users who are still running any of the NASCAR Racing simulations a free first month, the Chevy Monte-Carlo SS late model, Martinsville Speedway and of course, the basic content normally included with a 1-month subscription (Pontiac Solstice, Legends Ford ’34 Coupe, SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Lanier National Speedway, Lime Rock Park, Oxford Plains Speedway, Summit Point Raceway, South Boston Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca).

So, why did I choose the Chevy Monte-Carlo SS? Because it’s a lot of fun. Secondly, because it’s a lot of fun (and I do know I said it twice). This is my favorite stock car. It doesn’t require you to be so precise and you can drive this car the way you want to drive it – and it rewards you every way. I drive this car with what I call ‘happy hands’, as I am constantly working the wheel and the feel the car gives is just superb. This car will show you just how far things have come since NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. You can also reach a Rookie 4.0 license within a few hours of membership and this will allow you to drive this car in official races.

Why did I choose Martinsville Speedway? because who could say no to this paperclip-shaped beauty? It produces close side-by-side and bumper to nose racing every time. This track is one of the few tracks on the late model schedule in iRacing that isn’t already given to you with the basic subscription, and although my favorite track on the schedule is Concord (a three-turn oval) I thought it better to give you Martinsville Speedway, which is used later in your iRacing career all the way up the ladder.

Any Tips? The late model, as I said before, is very driveable. The best way to drive it technically will be as smooth as possible, but the car easily accepts being sideways and has enough feeling to allow you time to recover it. Many say the late model series in iRacing provides the best quality racing available…

To claim your free first month new account ‘LM+Marty’ version, go here, use promo code: REMOVED DUE TO ABUSE

How the subscription works/things you need to know:

The promotion code creates a new account. Therefore, this cannot be used to add content to an existing account in any way.

A credit/debit card or Paypal account is required and will be needed to access the trial.

This is a free first month. You can cancel payment for the second (and onwards) months at any time. When logged into the members Web site, go to the My Account link, click cancel and cancel again. Regular monthly billing is $19 per month.

Some credit/debit cards (especially European banks) will not accept a $0 transaction. To get around this, we sometimes request $1 – which will show as pending, but this $1 will drop back into your account and will not be taken.

You can switch your trial to a 3-month, 6-month or 1-year subscription at any time. Go to the My Account link on the members Web site and renew the account. Any amount of time you purchase will be added to the time remaining on your trial.

If you buy any additional content on the trial account, but do not wish to continue the trial after the first month, the additional content will be waiting for you to re-subscribe at a later date along with all your racing stats and license.

At the moment there is no end-date for this promotion. But one is set in the system for 31st December, 2009.

If you have any questions about the trial, feel free to contact me by email or facebook.

Feel free to share this iRacing trial information on any other Web site or forum.