A retrospective as a RD staff member!
I saw that it has been a year since I organized my first race for RaceDepartment. So a good moment to look back.
I started racing online 3 years ago. The first year the events were mainly organized by Craig Dunkley. The GT3s mostly on Sundays and other variants on some other days. Unfortunately Craig had an accident and we haven't seen him since
. @Chris Down then went on to do the GT3s and @Denis Betty and @Medilloni John Power other events such as BTCC and Classic cars. At the beginning of 2020 Denis (for AC that is) and John stopped organizing and we only had the GT3 with Chris left.
@Interslice Brian Walsh and I thought it was a shame that we didn't have another race in the midweek and together we decided to join the RaceDepartment staff to organize the events during the week. Brian was supposed to do Group C and other classes on Tuesdays and I saw my chance to implement an idea I'd been toying with for some time on Wednesday. When Chris retired, I first took over the GT3s but when Brian became a father and Tuesday didn't suit him anymore, he took over the Sunday sessions and I started hosting some different types of events on Tuesday.
Now for that idea that was playing in my head. During the first years that I participated, I saw many newcomers who often dropped out after one or two times.
My idea was that the events that we did, such as the GT3 and the classic cars, were often experienced as a deception for them because they could not be really competitive as a newcomer.
So I wanted to make it easier for them to get in and that's how Wednesday's multiclass was born with cars that have few setup options, are relatively easy to drive and allow you to focus on learning the basics of racing. These events could then be a stepping stone to, for example, the GT3 class where, because of the multiclass principle, you also learn to deal with overtaking and being overtaken.
I added to that to usually race on the same track as the GT3 the following Sunday so that the participants only have to learn the track once.
I can now say that the multiclass is successful, firstly because of the usually well-filled grid, but also because I have seen many beginners who are still there almost every Wednesday to this day and there are also some who participate with the GT3s and other events.
And as far as I can judge, everyone has also become a lot faster and more consistent (or I have become slower myself ).
To start with @Allan Ramsbottom , the Drift King as I call him in myself. Certainly not a beginner, but someone I previously only saw every now and then at classic car events and saw doing things with cars there that I never thought possible. He now seems to be very dedicated to the MX5 and is competing in the top in the classic cars championships.
@a_murel Andre Murel has become his buddy and invariably has great fights with him. And I see Andre more and more at other events.
@Fiberoptix Tim Simons is in my opinion the one who has made the most progress of all participants. In the beginning I could keep up with him, but now he has joined the group of aliens where I think he will soon put the fire to Chris's shins.
And then of course Chris 'please be careful in turn 1' Down himself. Known to everyone in his Union Jack McLaren and his 'Cheers!' when he puts you on a lap again. I really like that he has now started participating in the other events as well, although that reduces my chance of a podium quite a bit.
@JamKart22 Colin Jones is another competitor who has gotten a lot faster especially lately. He is also a very neat driver that I really like to have around.
Someone who is perhaps the most respectful of other drivers is @Shed 17 Paul Fairweather. Paul participates in many events and is rarely involved in an incident that he could do something about. So also someone I'm happy to have on the grid.
I see @Douglas Aird Douglas Aird as a Scottish version of Paul. Also always well aware of other drivers in his immediate environment and a welcome guest on the track.
So are @Taj Johal Tajinder Johal, @Dzul Raul Martinez, @Casper de Wit, @Partick Eaton Pat Eaton and @maxilogan Omar Filippini. You are also neat drivers who slowly get faster and faster and have a lot of fun fighting each other. You prove that you don't have to compete for the prizes to have fun racing!
@FabianoRL Fabiano de Lima, @garyb 76 Gary Blumhagen, @beginer Chris Gonzalez and @davejevons David Jevons also fit perfectly in that list, often found in the back but continuing to learn and become more consistent every time. The connection to the midfield will certainly come!
@Programmer_Rich Richard Barratt and @Alfred Wayne Robert Hopkins have certainly found that already and are now podium candidates. I think Richard is the most consistent driver who has already won races without setting the fastest lap times while Robert does the opposite. He needs to bring in the consistency a little more, but his speed is good.
And then of course @stigs2cousin Carsten 'happy hunting' Meyer who I can call my favorite German. I always look forward to his posts in the threads to see what hilarious comments and now will be in again. And his Audi warnings are legendary and have cost me a few tenths of a lap of laughter several times.
I haven't mentioned everyone here who has competed in the latest events because I especially wanted to mention the people who have been faithfully participating in my races for a longer period of time.
That is why I can only end this long speech with the waffle king himself: @Kek700 Ernie Wright. I think I have to look really hard for an event of mine that Ernie didn't participate in. He is always there and annoyingly enough also (almost) always faster than me. I don't want to know how many rounds I've had to look at the back of his car, but that's always better than having him in your mirror all the time.
I have great respect for Ernie who at his age and the handicap of almost no feeling in his leg is so good that he regularly wins events and also holds his own in the difficult classic cars. Although I've seen real photos of him in the "Introduce yourself" thread, I can't help but picture him with a huge diastema because of all those photos of Terry Thomas that he always puts in his posts that make me laugh so hard.
I would like to end my retrospective by also looking ahead. I've spent a lot of time in the past year figuring out, testing, organizing and hosting the events. Due to the obligation to work from home from COVID, I also had some extra time to spare because I had no commute. I have really enjoyed it because of your participation and reactions in Discord and the threads. I will continue with the multiclass for the time being and besides that I have some ideas. In any case, I want to do another @Fat-Alfie championship (hopefully with the Battenbergring) because I love those tracks so much myself. I would also like something related to Formula 1 and because there are also a number of participants who love classic cars I will pay attention to that on Tuesday as well as events with street cars and the occasionally fun events.
Finally, I would like to thank every participant for the past year for a lot of racing fun !
See you on track!
EDIT:
Someone reminded me that I should also thank some other guys.
So thanks to @Enzo Fazzi for introducing sim racing by giving me an RD premium account for a year and selling me his old G27. And of course also because he is only too happy to let me know what I am doing wrong in my racing.
Thanks to @Neilski Neil Conway for helping out with S.GP and AC stuff and learning how to configure the AVON servers.
Also thanks to @Bram Hengeveld for allowing me to join the RD staff so that I could start organizing events.
Finally, thanks to @Interslice Brian Walsh for being my co-organizer and for helping me think about new events and championships.
I saw that it has been a year since I organized my first race for RaceDepartment. So a good moment to look back.
I started racing online 3 years ago. The first year the events were mainly organized by Craig Dunkley. The GT3s mostly on Sundays and other variants on some other days. Unfortunately Craig had an accident and we haven't seen him since
. @Chris Down then went on to do the GT3s and @Denis Betty and @Medilloni John Power other events such as BTCC and Classic cars. At the beginning of 2020 Denis (for AC that is) and John stopped organizing and we only had the GT3 with Chris left.@Interslice Brian Walsh and I thought it was a shame that we didn't have another race in the midweek and together we decided to join the RaceDepartment staff to organize the events during the week. Brian was supposed to do Group C and other classes on Tuesdays and I saw my chance to implement an idea I'd been toying with for some time on Wednesday. When Chris retired, I first took over the GT3s but when Brian became a father and Tuesday didn't suit him anymore, he took over the Sunday sessions and I started hosting some different types of events on Tuesday.
Now for that idea that was playing in my head. During the first years that I participated, I saw many newcomers who often dropped out after one or two times.
My idea was that the events that we did, such as the GT3 and the classic cars, were often experienced as a deception for them because they could not be really competitive as a newcomer.
So I wanted to make it easier for them to get in and that's how Wednesday's multiclass was born with cars that have few setup options, are relatively easy to drive and allow you to focus on learning the basics of racing. These events could then be a stepping stone to, for example, the GT3 class where, because of the multiclass principle, you also learn to deal with overtaking and being overtaken.
I added to that to usually race on the same track as the GT3 the following Sunday so that the participants only have to learn the track once.
I can now say that the multiclass is successful, firstly because of the usually well-filled grid, but also because I have seen many beginners who are still there almost every Wednesday to this day and there are also some who participate with the GT3s and other events.
And as far as I can judge, everyone has also become a lot faster and more consistent (or I have become slower myself
).To start with @Allan Ramsbottom , the Drift King as I call him in myself. Certainly not a beginner, but someone I previously only saw every now and then at classic car events and saw doing things with cars there that I never thought possible. He now seems to be very dedicated to the MX5 and is competing in the top in the classic cars championships.
@a_murel Andre Murel has become his buddy and invariably has great fights with him. And I see Andre more and more at other events.
@Fiberoptix Tim Simons is in my opinion the one who has made the most progress of all participants. In the beginning I could keep up with him, but now he has joined the group of aliens where I think he will soon put the fire to Chris's shins.
And then of course Chris 'please be careful in turn 1' Down himself. Known to everyone in his Union Jack McLaren and his 'Cheers!' when he puts you on a lap again. I really like that he has now started participating in the other events as well, although that reduces my chance of a podium quite a bit.
@JamKart22 Colin Jones is another competitor who has gotten a lot faster especially lately. He is also a very neat driver that I really like to have around.
Someone who is perhaps the most respectful of other drivers is @Shed 17 Paul Fairweather. Paul participates in many events and is rarely involved in an incident that he could do something about. So also someone I'm happy to have on the grid.
I see @Douglas Aird Douglas Aird as a Scottish version of Paul. Also always well aware of other drivers in his immediate environment and a welcome guest on the track.
So are @Taj Johal Tajinder Johal, @Dzul Raul Martinez, @Casper de Wit, @Partick Eaton Pat Eaton and @maxilogan Omar Filippini. You are also neat drivers who slowly get faster and faster and have a lot of fun fighting each other. You prove that you don't have to compete for the prizes to have fun racing!
@FabianoRL Fabiano de Lima, @garyb 76 Gary Blumhagen, @beginer Chris Gonzalez and @davejevons David Jevons also fit perfectly in that list, often found in the back but continuing to learn and become more consistent every time. The connection to the midfield will certainly come!
@Programmer_Rich Richard Barratt and @Alfred Wayne Robert Hopkins have certainly found that already and are now podium candidates. I think Richard is the most consistent driver who has already won races without setting the fastest lap times while Robert does the opposite. He needs to bring in the consistency a little more, but his speed is good.
And then of course @stigs2cousin Carsten 'happy hunting' Meyer who I can call my favorite German. I always look forward to his posts in the threads to see what hilarious comments and now will be in again. And his Audi warnings are legendary and have cost me a few tenths of a lap of laughter several times
.I haven't mentioned everyone here who has competed in the latest events because I especially wanted to mention the people who have been faithfully participating in my races for a longer period of time.
That is why I can only end this long speech with the waffle king himself: @Kek700 Ernie Wright. I think I have to look really hard for an event of mine that Ernie didn't participate in. He is always there and annoyingly enough also (almost) always faster than me. I don't want to know how many rounds I've had to look at the back of his car, but that's always better than having him in your mirror all the time.
I have great respect for Ernie who at his age and the handicap of almost no feeling in his leg is so good that he regularly wins events and also holds his own in the difficult classic cars. Although I've seen real photos of him in the "Introduce yourself" thread, I can't help but picture him with a huge diastema because of all those photos of Terry Thomas that he always puts in his posts that make me laugh so hard
.I would like to end my retrospective by also looking ahead. I've spent a lot of time in the past year figuring out, testing, organizing and hosting the events. Due to the obligation to work from home from COVID, I also had some extra time to spare because I had no commute. I have really enjoyed it because of your participation and reactions in Discord and the threads. I will continue with the multiclass for the time being and besides that I have some ideas. In any case, I want to do another @Fat-Alfie championship (hopefully with the Battenbergring) because I love those tracks so much myself. I would also like something related to Formula 1 and because there are also a number of participants who love classic cars I will pay attention to that on Tuesday as well as events with street cars and the occasionally fun events.
Finally, I would like to thank every participant for the past year for a lot of racing fun
!See you on track!
EDIT:
Someone reminded me that I should also thank some other guys.
So thanks to @Enzo Fazzi for introducing sim racing by giving me an RD premium account for a year and selling me his old G27. And of course also because he is only too happy to let me know what I am doing wrong in my racing
.Thanks to @Neilski Neil Conway for helping out with S.GP and AC stuff and learning how to configure the AVON servers.
Also thanks to @Bram Hengeveld for allowing me to join the RD staff so that I could start organizing events.
Finally, thanks to @Interslice Brian Walsh for being my co-organizer and for helping me think about new events and championships.
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