Simon Smith
Always running at 107%
Uh oh! He's back! Just when you thought it was safe to leave the pitlane. By Jove it's been a long, harsh winter for me. No sooner were the new open wheel and touring car seasons open and the Le Man Series due to start suddenly my laptop decided to it was the prime moment to detonate on me - literally. Goodbye motherboard, it was like we never met. As a result I've been left on the sidelines for the year to date and my plans to finally crack the steering wheel have well and truly gone down the pan.
I have looked at doing some decorating. Then I decided no. I then thought I might venture outside into the real world. Then I whacked my head and gave myself a good talking to. Obviously that didn't knock any sense into me as I then thought I'd find stimulating simracing on console games. Yes... it was a new low I'd sunk to. Who needs an alcohol addiction when you think you can have a clean race on the PS3 F1 2010 servers.
So I've resorted to writing my rfactor disc little love notes such as "see you on the server soon baby" and "your ride height looks mighty fine". It's like a long distance relationship through skype with a dodgy connection - unfulfilling and alien. Thank god my temporary computer can just about manage skype so I can keep podcasting away otherwise I think I'd self combust!
I ask you sim racers of the world. What on earth do you do when its not race weekend? If you say "I test" I will be very jealous.
It's funny because prior to all this I was reducing a lot of my duties anyway for 2011. I was shrinking my team, the leagues I drove in to just two and commentating duties to just a few here and there. Like gorging on pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I felt like I'd had too much of a good thing and burnt out. Now I can't choose to drop in and out as I please I miss it like crazy and just want to jump into the cockpit and commentary booth! I've a new found respect and understanding for why Michael Schumacher returned to F1. Once you've had the bug, it's hard to not bite back.
Thankfully my new PC should be here and in working order within a week and I hope to be back with the community I love to feel part of and it's community spirit I wanted to write about today.
What other communities out there have such a dedicated support network? I've been priviledged to sit back and watch countless people working hard to have a great foundation. If you take just here at Race Department you've the admin, the staff writers, the race marshalls, the league and event organisers, the live stream deals and arrangements, the rented server spaces, the tv and media teams. I mean a Tv channel!!! You don't get someone commentating on world of warcraft dungeon crawling. "Oh look, he's about to get his wand out now..." We're so lucky to have such dedicated people out there wanting to provide for everyone else. That's just the people on this website - there's hundreds!
What do we give them back? Well we've the team bosses and their drivers of course. The friendships and fun rivalries are fascinating to watch and read. The websites behind the teams, tribute videos, the team liveries, logos and fun press releases. I know of some drivers that also have their own websites and twitter feeds. I won't even begin to go into skills that all the people who actually make the mods and tracks for games have because it goes so far over my head we're in Narnia.
I know of no other community that is so all encompassing, so passionate about everything it does and for the most part, is self aware enough to know the experience is meant to be fun. For that I want to say a massive thank you to everyone for making the sim racing community exactly what it is today. Everyone builds a cornerstone into it no matter how small. Everyone should feel proud to be part of it.
If you want to show us something that you or your team do, pop it below. If you'd just like to share in the sim racing appreciation society then simply pop a thank you below!
Ah motherboard, I'll get you next time! Until then, my engine is rolling over waiting for the lights to go out...
I have looked at doing some decorating. Then I decided no. I then thought I might venture outside into the real world. Then I whacked my head and gave myself a good talking to. Obviously that didn't knock any sense into me as I then thought I'd find stimulating simracing on console games. Yes... it was a new low I'd sunk to. Who needs an alcohol addiction when you think you can have a clean race on the PS3 F1 2010 servers.So I've resorted to writing my rfactor disc little love notes such as "see you on the server soon baby" and "your ride height looks mighty fine". It's like a long distance relationship through skype with a dodgy connection - unfulfilling and alien. Thank god my temporary computer can just about manage skype so I can keep podcasting away otherwise I think I'd self combust!
I ask you sim racers of the world. What on earth do you do when its not race weekend? If you say "I test" I will be very jealous.
It's funny because prior to all this I was reducing a lot of my duties anyway for 2011. I was shrinking my team, the leagues I drove in to just two and commentating duties to just a few here and there. Like gorging on pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I felt like I'd had too much of a good thing and burnt out. Now I can't choose to drop in and out as I please I miss it like crazy and just want to jump into the cockpit and commentary booth! I've a new found respect and understanding for why Michael Schumacher returned to F1. Once you've had the bug, it's hard to not bite back.
Thankfully my new PC should be here and in working order within a week and I hope to be back with the community I love to feel part of and it's community spirit I wanted to write about today.
What other communities out there have such a dedicated support network? I've been priviledged to sit back and watch countless people working hard to have a great foundation. If you take just here at Race Department you've the admin, the staff writers, the race marshalls, the league and event organisers, the live stream deals and arrangements, the rented server spaces, the tv and media teams. I mean a Tv channel!!! You don't get someone commentating on world of warcraft dungeon crawling. "Oh look, he's about to get his wand out now..." We're so lucky to have such dedicated people out there wanting to provide for everyone else. That's just the people on this website - there's hundreds!
What do we give them back? Well we've the team bosses and their drivers of course. The friendships and fun rivalries are fascinating to watch and read. The websites behind the teams, tribute videos, the team liveries, logos and fun press releases. I know of some drivers that also have their own websites and twitter feeds. I won't even begin to go into skills that all the people who actually make the mods and tracks for games have because it goes so far over my head we're in Narnia.
I know of no other community that is so all encompassing, so passionate about everything it does and for the most part, is self aware enough to know the experience is meant to be fun. For that I want to say a massive thank you to everyone for making the sim racing community exactly what it is today. Everyone builds a cornerstone into it no matter how small. Everyone should feel proud to be part of it.
If you want to show us something that you or your team do, pop it below. If you'd just like to share in the sim racing appreciation society then simply pop a thank you below!
Ah motherboard, I'll get you next time! Until then, my engine is rolling over waiting for the lights to go out...
