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The Light At The End Of A Dark Tunnel - My time through lockdown

After a couple of months of stress and difficulty, I am finally able to see the lighter side of life - and the excitement that is to come.

1y ago
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Who Am I?

I last posted anything on DriveTribe a year (or two) ago, so some who read Will's articles may not have come across me yet. I'm the weird one.

Myself and Sir Smokey (Will) first met on Euro Truck Simulator 2 years ago, I'm not sure the order of events, but he banned me for doing something dumb and we became friends ever since.

In January 2019, I joined iRacing and progressed up the routes of Global Mazda MX5 Cup (Season 1, 2019) and The now defunct Ferrari GT3 Challenge (Season 2, 2019).

Around this time last year, I created a racing team called Kabort Motorsport. In the beginning I did VRS Endurance, a weekendly 3hr endurance series.

Kabort started off alright, finishing 21st at the Glen 6 hours, before finishing 12th at the Spa 24 Hours - full race reports of these can be found on my website's blog section (www.kabortmotorsport.com/blog).

In October of 2019, I offered Will to hot-seat (share same computer/account) with me at a 24 Hour Charity event hosted by Jimmy Broadbent, since he didn't have an account at the time.

It started well, however, a lack of organisation from my team, a broken wheel from another driver among other problems resulted in A DNF.

In January 2020, we'd do the iRacing Bathurst 12 Hours together - which went well for exactly 11 hours and 45 minutes, before I took my eyes off the road to apologise to a fellow driver, then putting the car into the wall. We were aiming for 5th - finished 7th - hugely devastating after a very solid performance beforehand.

Our story is wrapped up at the Sebring 12 Hours where we had a flawless run to finish 9th in Class. We are still very good friends to this day.

P9 At Sebring was a definiete highlight during Will's time at Kabort

P9 At Sebring was a definiete highlight during Will's time at Kabort

A Dark Place

This pandemic has been incredibly difficult for me - not physically but mentally.

No sooner had the UK gone under lockdown on 23rd March, my dad fell very ill. He suffered a lot of bodily pains, and became very weak.

He'd return home, but be fully dependent on my mum. With the amount she had to look after him, I had to step up and do some more chores around the house including washing up, and learning to cook a meal for myself.

As a Dyspraxic who only learnt how to do shoe-laces in secondary school, and find washing up and cooking difficult - it was quite a big step up, but one I was not only willing - but had to - make.

With college work still needing to be done, this was not ideal.

Weeks later in was confirmed that he would have a long-term condition, (not Corona), which required lots of treatment to deal with the condition itself, the medication and side-effects..

In addition to my dad being in a poorly state, my mum also had to worry, my grandmother in Germany had Polish carers and with lockdown in Germany there was worries about crossing the border between Poland and Germany and the care she should get.

My parents shortly organised with college that due to the current situation, they would cancel any over-due assignments and grade me on what I had done on the basis that had I completed the work, it wouldn't have been up to the quality I am capable of.

I found a way to distract myself during these times - Radio Le Mans commentator Joe Bradley began hosting Skip Barber races with fellow commentators such as Nick Daman, Ben Constanduros, Naser Teymourian and other members of Radio Le Mans.

After a couple of races, this turned into a league, racing every Tuesday and Thursday.

I ran the very shiny 2011 McLaren Vodafone Livery and fitting race suit

I ran the very shiny 2011 McLaren Vodafone Livery and fitting race suit

Since I was already doing blogs for the endurance series I was running with Kabort (I wasn't racing, just managing, but my management had slipped slightly), I thought I would do blogs on the COVID Cup Series (Joe Bradley's Skip Barber League). In the beginning it was alright - but 3/4 into the season I was slowly falling behind.

One of these races lasts for 30 Minutes. Being every Tuesday and Thursday evening means I realistically only have Wednesday to write Tuesday's blog, and the weekend to write Thursday's blog - however after I got a couple of blogs behind - the backlog hit and with my dad's condition, in addition to not knowing weather I'd be going to university in the summer (still don't) my mental health was hacked down.

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

May. Boris Johnson in the weirdest way possible announces that things are improving and that the United Kingdom plans to get things rolling again - too soon? Too late? Wrongly announced? Not up to me, none of my business.

Late May also saw staggering progress from my dad who looks overall much healthier than he did and is able to walk again after not being able to.

In addition to this, he is a lot more vocal, talking much more than before he got ill.

With his condition improving, my mum has been less stressed too, making the atmosphere at home much calmer.

And in the past week I too have been feeling a lot better - pumping out the remainder of the "Covid Cup Season 1" blogs. As I type, I'm just finishing of Round 10 of 12. If I remember correctly, Round 11 was a little uninteresting. The goal is to have season 1 finished by June.

On the topic of blogs, I have been REQUESTED to write two blogs by two diffrerent people - meaning that people enjoy my blogs and want more from me.

The first is not so exciting - it's to write the Season 2, Round 1 (Watkins Glen) Blog of the re-named "MOFO Race (But don't Race) Championship" - With a new name, new format but same cars - it'll be fun to write.

And the other, is...

A part 2 of "A Brief History Of Motorsport". At least one year later, Will wanted more. When I get around to it, this will explore motorsport from the end of the war to present day. I thoroughly hope you enjoyed the first and will thoroughly enjoy the second (as well as this slightly "different" blog).

Once again, I must thoroughly encourage you to visit www.kabortmotorsport.com/blog where I upload regular race blogs on the Skippy league and Kabort's endeavours.

I apologise if this hasn't been as "car-related" as expected, but with the grounding of motorsport, I thought I'd just release my feelings onto a blog.

The next one I upload here should - If not WILL - be the Brief History Of Motorsport Part 2 blog.

Stay Safe, life is returning to normal, and I will catch you "next week on Friday"

Heading off into the Sebring Sunset at the Sebring 12 Hours

Heading off into the Sebring Sunset at the Sebring 12 Hours

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