Le Mans 2026: Thoughts and predictions

 

Here we go again! The Monaco Grand Prix of sportscars is about to start, and I've got a small wall of text to get off my chest as per usual.

Hypercar
In this apparent "Golden Age" of sportscar endurance racing, with Ferrari having won the last three editions (with three crews, who have all entered the last three editions together) it's got to be someone besides them to win this year. Otherwise we might look back on this era as an Italian washout (with a small Japanese prologue from Toyota), which it most assuredly is not; given just how many manufacturers we now have in the Hypercar class and how closely matched they are.

Cadillac demonstrated their one-lap pace in qualifying last year and this one, but lost the 2026 pole position following a track limits violation. This gifted the #15 BMW the top spot, which is very annoying since I've been feeling like it might be BMW's year ever since their #20 car won at Spa. Now it only looks like I'm picking them because they're on pole! But honestly, all of these manufacturers are looking fairly quick (except maybe for Peugeot, the poor guys...) including the new Genesis Magma which snuck its way up to 6th on the grid.

So what do I actually think? It's be cool if someone other than Ferrari ends up winning. I think either BMW seems most likely to do that. But I wouldn't be sad if Toyota manage to win at Le Mans in a stronger field than in their previous successful years. An Aston Martin winning would be awesome.

LMP2 and LMGT3
I have absolutely no insight or opinions for you here. Ever since the system of driver allowance based on how many platinum/gold/silver/bronze rated drivers can be in LMP2 or GT3, it's given me too much to keep up on. I've not got a clue who might be decent among most silver or any of the bronze drivers. I tell you what, though; there's still plenty of interesting names with famous older relatives attached to them, as well as ex-F1 drivers and seriously good endurance racers to look out for.

Twist my arm? I'll say #14 with Lütke/Beche/Estre or #24 with Jack Doohan in it for LMP2, and one of the Manthey Porsches in GT3 (#91 and #92)

Alléz, Le Mans!

Musings about modern motorsports

Is quantity more important than quality?

We all know that there's a fair bit of arguing going on these days, concerning the chaotic nature of the 2026 Formula One regulations. Some would argue that it's led to a whole lot more overtaking, which then equates to more exciting racing. Others might say something to the tune of "It's random, contrived and totally artificial with too many gimmicks." Besides these subjective opinions, I'd argue that there's an objective fact; we're incredibly lucky not to have witnessed a worse accident due to badly timed super clipping, than Oliver Bearman's shunt at Suzuka. I'm surely not the only one to have imagined a similar accident happening round one of the many blind corners at Jeddah, with practically zero runoff to boot, with far more disastrous consequences.

I recently noticed a video in my youtube feed, the title of which immediately caught my eye: "A Thrilling Strategic Duel: Fernando Alonso vs Kimi Räikkönen | 2007 Bahrain GP" [1]. I don't know about you, but the combination of words "thrilling", "strategic duel", "Bahrain" and "2007" really don't make *any* sense to me. I watched this video (and several other, far more interesting ones from the same uploader) and I felt some conflicting emotions. On one hand, I know as well as most of you do, that the supposed "good old days" of refuelling and tyre changes produced approximately the same variance of race strategy as today. There will always be an optimum strategy, and the top teams will tend to converge on said strategy. You might also remember, if you were around for F1 around the turn of the century, that the vast majority of the changes of position near the front of the pack happened in conjunction with in-laps, pit stops and out-laps. If I'm brutally honest, it's a fairly dull spectacle.

HOWEVER!

I don't think I'm wrong for also feeling that there was a certain excitement despite all this. The engines were loud, the cars were small and nimble. I know that nostalgia is one hell of a drug, and I know that I wasn't alone in hating how all the messy aero winglets looked. The winglets also contributed to the dirty air that played in part in making passing so difficult. But as I watched Kimi gradually pulling away from Alonso after their pit stops I couldn't help but feel a sense of longing back to a simpler time. The level of gimmicks were so much less, to the point where this "Thrilling strategic duel" felt like I was actually watching two drivers doing everything they could to best one another, using only their pedals and steering wheels. The drivers drove the cars to the best of their abilities. Of course the likes of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are also driving the cars to the best of their abilities in 2026; but they're constantly being micro-managed by the team, aren't they?

Of course, Bahrain 2007 is an example cherry picked from Ciaron Smith's channel [2] to illustrate the dissonance of (what I remember as) a boring race that's now being heralded as some amazing piece of action from back in the good old days. A lot of his other uploads are genuinely fun to watch and feel nostalgic over. There are many instances of amazing overtakes, which of course were all the more amazing due to the fact that it was so bloody difficult to pull one off most of the time. There was an art to it. And it's easy to feel like drivers back then were somehow better that today's whiny little kids, who are constantly running each other off the track and telling on one another for the slightest transgressions. I don't know. Have they always been whiny like that? Because then I'd argue that the broadcasters have a responsibility for this perspective, because they are the ones who choose to broadcast these radio communications.

Finally, I'm going to leave you with something that healed me and put a massive smile on my face when I saw it yesterday. Professional racers, in old touring cars, of various shapes and sizes, going as fast as they possibly can, swapping positions (without contrived gimmicks) almost constantly, and four-wheel-drifting through nearly every corner [3]. I'm not saying that this is what F1 needs to be. But perhaps you need to seek out a different type of motorsport, if you're finding yourself a little bit fed up with what the sport of Formula One is giving you.

[1] https://youtu.be/5aq2mifqCp4

[2] https://youtube.com/@ciaronsmith4995

[3] https://youtu.be/4FDoMAVKmC0

It's been over a year, but I've still got the skills.

I've just done a 23-lap session at Laguna Seca in an R8 LMS in rFactor, and I'm pretty impressed with my pace, considering it's been over a year since my last race: VEC, Season 5, The 6 hours of Fuji (You can see me on the grid).

After I'd done a couple of 1m25s laps, I had this strange feeling that I ought to be lapping in the 1m23s. Classic subliminal thinking technique, one that I always inadvertently manage to fool myself to drive faster with. Turns out that a 1m23s0 was my Pre-Qualifying time back in the day, with fresh tyres and low fuel! I would have kept on driving, but I accidentally drained the fuel tank when intending to pit for just tyres for the final couple of laps. However, I can confidently say that I've still got it in me

Feels good!

My laptimes and out-of-the-box consistency, for posterity.

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Watkins Glen - Pressure cooker

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

The HPD has once again been updated for a new season, and this time it has more top speed (at least compared with the GT cars) and less front-end grip. This means that passing the GT cars is a lot easier, and that the car isn't as insanely planted and grippy through the corners as it was last season. For the race, I qualified well in what was a really big field consisting of 34 cars. I got settled in pretty quickly, and overtook two cars who had gone off the road for position. Most of the race consisted of chasing Mauro Licciardello in 3rd, and trying in vain to find a way past. I was consistently getting a good tow from him up the esses and I was much quicker through the chicaine, but even if you get alongside at that point it's still a dangerous place to pass. I was very fortunate not to get nerfed off the road as he chopped me off once as we entered the chicaine. The closest I got to actually getting past him was when I out-braked him into the toe, but couldn't capitalise on it through the next left-hander. All in all, though, it was a fun race with 0 incident points.

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Phillip Island - Hard to pass

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Qualified 4th with a blinder of a lap (see previous entry) but lost one position right after the start to Philip Stamm by virtue of a sneaky move up the inside of T2. I shadowed him for three laps, gradually closing in and peeking up the inside of T3 a few times. I went for a proper move on the fourth lap but out-braked myself and lost two positions to the scrapping pair of Andreas Osthoff and Tarcilo Cordeiro. Tarcilo snuck past Andreas, but couldn't quite shake him as we started moving through traffic. They collide five laps later between turns 1 and 2 and are out of the race, promoting me back into 5th with a 5-second gap up to Philip with 8 laps to go.

Highlights up until this point in the race, by Andreas Osthoff:


I got my head down and started to do some really quick and consistent laps in clean air. I lost out a bit of time due to unfortunate timing when catching Corvettes and GTs, but I was reeling Philip in at a decent rate each lap. On the final lap, I was right on his gearbox through the sharp right-hander after the downhill braking zone and could only slipstream him to the finish line. An exhilarating finish to a decent race!

Phillip Island qualifying lap

I don't usually go nuts in qualifying sessions; usually I'm fine with just setting a reasonable time so I don't have to pick my way past n00bs at the start. But this session escalated into a real chase for thousandths of a second.

After getting taken out by virtue of a silly first-lap incident in a race in the fixed series, I decided that I should qualify if I wanted to survive my next attempt. It was a good session, and culminated with my fastest lap which started with 30 seconds left in the session. First sector was exactly as quick as my current best, I purple'd the second sector after nailing the next two corners and went a tiny bit slower in the last. Could have gone slightly faster, but we're only talking thousandths of a second so I'm cool with that :)

Here's the lap in question. It netted me a compliment from the Brazilian who posted a time only 0.08 seconds faster than mine, which is always nice!



Session details on iRacing

Prototype/GT @ Phillip Island - On the rostrum

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Qualified 3rd, took 2nd right off the bat and settled in. Got overtaken by Tamy Accioly who then promptly went off the track, granting my position back to me. Actually led the 15th lap due to the leader (Cristian Petero) having an off while trying to lap a Ford GT. It got hampered badly myself by a Corvette on the next lap, and Cristian was back in the lead and once again lapping slightly faster than me. I soon realised I would need to pit for fuel, and fudged up the calculations slightly (resulting in 13 kg left in the tank at the end, which is too much) which cost me a couple of seconds. Me and Tamy then exited the pits nose-to-tail and I managed to hold him off for one lap before he snuck past under braking. Then he suddenly and inexplicably disappeared due to a disconnection, and I was back in 2nd which I was able to safely cruise home to.

Lapping the Corvettes and GTs is really tricky! They go much faster at the end of the straights, and then they have to slow down a lot for the corners. If either part isn't paying attention, and both cars pick the same side (which happens more often than you would think) a lot of time gets lost and sometimes cars get nerfed off the track. I wish iRacing had an LMP1 car so we didn't have to put up with this rubbish.

Prototype/GT @ Phillip Island - USE YOUR MIRRORS

Apparantly I was on the grass and his spotter didn't tell him I was alongside. He also said I wasn't going to pass him on the outside.



So then I went all...



...and quit, since my car was broken because of this fucktard.

Prototype/GT @ Silverstone - Stuck throttle

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Qualified 8th, got away cleanly and set about driving consistently. Caught and passed Michael McCormick on L10 by going 3 wide with him and the lead Corvette down the Hangar Straight. Luckily the Corvette lifted off before the braking zone, but I was seriously worried he was going to muddle things up for us. Gradually started to pull away from Michael and was posting consistent times and new PBs all around. Was good to go all the way after one stop for fuel, and had a very quick stop compared with Michael. Due to attrition, I was actually running 3rd at this point.

Then as I caught the lead Corvette again, this time before Bridge, my pedals froze and I almost took him off the track with me. In hindsight would have served him right, because he was driving with his head up his ass...

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Silverstone - Traffic plays a role

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Got away cleanly in 8th, and settled into a rhythm. Got overtaken by Cédric Le Comte (who ended up 4th) and set about keeping David Sockrider behind me. I managed to scythe through the GT and Corvette traffic when we encountered it, and ended up with an 8-something second gap and running all on my own. Some of these cars were easier to pass than others, and some more obnoxious about it than others. There seemed to be a lot of "take" and not a whole lot of "give" on their part, which seems to be the way things go in the world of iRacing. Got held up by a few cars on the second round of lapping, and had mr. Sockrider up my chuff for the last 5-6 minutes of the race.

Things got really intense on the last lap of the race, where I caught the slow car of Dan Giang coming out of Chapel. He had just nerfed a Corvette off the track and was moving slightly towards the right side of the track. I moved right myself to try to get the inside but realised at the last second that this guy was going to block me all the way, so I Mansell'd him and went left, out-dragging him before Stowe. A fun race, and with no incident points to put a damper on things!

Prototype/GT @ Sebring - I keep running into idiots!

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

I was looking at a pretty secure 3rd place finish in this race, right before halfway through the race. I then went to pass a backmarker HPD, making sure I was on the side I was intending on passing him, and the moron just brake-checks me, sending us both spinning.

I managed to salvage 5th in the end, having run the rest of the race with a severely under-performing car. Good luck I was able to fix it, I suppose, but had I been able to pass this guy without incident then I'm pretty sure I would have ended up 2nd. Oh well! It's only a game in the grand scheme of things...

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Sebring - Starting from the pits is hell

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Qualified 4th, I was ready to kick some tush! Oh, wait. The screen froze. Re-connect and it wouldn't let me enter my car with 5 seconds to go before the pace lap was about to begin. Still not allowed to enter my car after the field starts rolling. Re-connected again and I was finally allowed to enter my car, sitting in the pits.

Negotiated four Corvettes and a bunch of really slow HPD's. Frustrating, because it lost me a lot of time, but also funny because I pretty much only had to take a peek down the inside of a braking zone and they crapped their pants, letting me by. When I caught Niko Nägele in 8th place, I had to fight with every fibre of my body over the course of several laps before I was finally able to pass him. A good, clean fight; but it lost me a lot of time to the two guys ahead who I'm sure I would've managed to catch. Oh well! Such is the nature of racing...

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Laguna Seca - Last lap + going for PB = Bad idea

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Here's a video summary of what happened. Also includes full onboard of my fastest lap.

Fixed Prototype/GT @ Spa - Use your look buttons

Start 13th since I didn't qualify, pass a guy into Les Combes and one guy out of Pouhon. Then this happens:



Fuck.

Prototype/GT @ Spa - Close to perfection

Results (image) - Results on iRacing

Hadn't done any laps before the qualifying session preceding the race, despite having all day to prepare. This was an exceptionally lazy Sunday. Anyway, the time was good enough for 6th on a fairly solid grid and I was hoping to hold on to my position, but not wanting to defend with tooth and nail as I've had some bad experiences with that at Spa in previous seasons.

Got away cleanly and quickly found myself running in a pocket between Karsten Deschler a couple of seconds ahead and Aaron Jennings close behind. Aaron shadowed me for most of the first half of the race, keeping my concentration up and giving me plenty to think about. He was faster than me between Stavelot and Les Combes by virtue of a setup with less downforce than mine, but I was able to leave him by 1.5 seconds around the rest of the lap. He managed to pass me once, and it looked like he was going to get away from me until he lost some time with a backmarker; I stayed close with him before eventually zipping past him out of Pouhon. I then managed to build up a sizeable gap and got into a rhythm.

About 10 laps before pitting, I did some quick calculating to see what my consumption was like on a lap-by-lap basis, and also noticed I was closing in on Karsten Deschler. We entered the pits nose-to-tail and I actually managed to leapfrog him in the pits, exiting just ahead of him. He followed me close for a few laps, and had me preoccupied just like Aaron had done earlier, until he had a spin coming out of the final corner and I was all alone.

At this point, there was only about 20 minutes to go and I was running all by myself. I started missing braking points, and the comfortable gap I had was slowly dropping. In the end, I managed to build the gap back up again, but if there ever was a point where I could easily have lost the race, this was it. But overall I'm very pleased with this race, and I gained a lot of iRating and Safety Rating which is always nice :)

Final note: Inherited 4th when Matthieu Leroy retired.

Another kick up the backside

GTP and GPL leagues have long since petered out and fizzled away. But ever since last summer I've been actively using the iRacing service to keep my simracing fix going, as well as maintain and improve upon a skill set which I deep down inside know is my favourite thing to do.

I am currently running the HPD (or Acura, depending of what side of the Atlantic) in the Prototype and GT series, rubbing shoulders with Corvettes and Ford GTs, and trying to get at least a race or two in per week. Sometimes I just feel like bragging or complaining about races I have, but I don't feel like posting about them on forums or on facebook because I don't honestly think people care. This is more for my own benefit, because analysing races can also help to improve me as a driver, and it's nice to have a nice archive to look back on.

So without any further ado: Enjoy! Or don't :p

Vader Trophy - Nürburgring and Montjuïc

[Wednesday - 22nd of July]

Track Map

Got punted off in the long left-hander after Flugplatz as I was re-joining the track (barely missed the guy in question when he went off in Quiddelbacher Höhe). Which was a shame, because I had a patient and well though out strategy that was going beautifully until then. The rest of the race was just anger and not fun in the slightest.

[Wednesday - 5th of August]

Track Map

Race 1: A horrible disaster of a race. Punching bag of the field. Quit in a seething rage after defending my position into T1, and all the way to Rosaleda, where I got flipped onto my head by some genius who forgot to take into account just how sluggish my BRM is under acceleration compared to his car.

Race 2: Got into a good rhythm, but got tagged by a Ferrari during a slow spin (sorry) and that was the end of it. Kept plugging until about two laps to go when, upon trying to reset my car, the sound flipped out and made the car un-driveable.

Vader Trophy - Vallelunga sprint event

[Wednesday - 8th of July]

For once, it had come to my attention that the next round of the Vader Trophy series was happening. I had a look at my calendar two days before the race, and saw that I wasn't doing anything on Wednesday, so I decided to download the new track (Vallelunga) and do some practise before making my GPL comeback. I'm really glad I did, because although it's quite a simple track to learn, Vallelunga takes a long time to master. Added to the fact that it's a really fun place to drive as demonstrated in the onboard video below as well as the little blurb of a video below it showcasing one of Vallelunga's hidden surprises... It also lends itself very well to the VT Sprint race format, where we run two shorter races with superpole qualifying for the second race.

Track Map

Those of you familiar with Grand Prix Legends will notice that I'm driving the BRM. Those of you who aren't: There are seven available chassis available in GPL, and I just so happened to pick the heaviest, most powerful and "slowest" of the seven. To answer both demographics with the same response: I've always enjoyed a challenge! Besides, it's kinda my "thing" to drive the BRM. As a result of this, I was obviously not expecting to win any prizes in qualifying and fulfilled my expectations by qualifying dead last in the 12-car field.

Fortunately I was able to drive with my patented "Clean head in lap 1" and subsequently dodged all six cars that had the compulsory Vader Trophy Lap one enormous accident. I pootled around in P6, having a jolly good time for about a lap before Gavin Wilson, in his Cooper, caught me halfway through the second lap (following a massive tankslapper from me coming out of the "Trincea" kink). I managed to superbly defend my position until my outside wheels caught the grass coming out of "Curvone" on the third lap, spun, and lost four positions. P10 after 4 laps. Rats! I did, however make up two positions thanks to Stewart Grove having a little spin in his Cooper entering the esses, and Stuart George's race turning into a disaster on that very lap. P8 afer 5 laps.

I then started to experience the concertina effect: I started closing in on Max West in front, at the same time as Nick van der Voort was baring down on me in my mirrors. Fortunately I managed to avoid getting squeezed completely, no thanks to my braking a bit too late for the "Cimini" corners, and having to stand on the brakes in order to avoid an embarassing accident with West. For whatever reason, he stuck to the inside and ended up going over the grass on the inside and then running wide, allowing myself and Nick through. There never really was any doubt that Nick was quicker than me, but I thought I'd make life hard for him as I valiantly defended my position until he finally snuck by with a well executed move into the first corner at the start of the 8th lap.

I managed to stick with him until the tight hairpin just before "Semaforo" where I spun out under acceleration, also letting Graham Bridgett through (who'd had a spin of his own a lap earlier). I rejoin the action with Stuart George hot on my tail. He hounds me until the "Cimini" corners on the next (and final) lap where we catch up to Graham Bridgett. Unfortunately, Max clips Stuart and Graham pulls away, leaving me to cross the line in P8, a substantial improvement from where I started the race!



I set a new PB in qualifying, and thanks to Kevin Williams, Stuart Knibbs and Gavin Wilson's misfortune, I found myself 9th on the grid. Once again, taking it easy, I picked my way though the smoke, debris and flying cars/body parts to find myself in 6th going into the first corner. Neil Stratton span off the track coming out of "Trincea" and I was in 5th. I then had a spin of my own under deceleration coming out of the first of the "Cimini" curves and dropped down to last at the end of the first lap, chasing Stuart Knibbs' Ferrari. I then proceeded to throw away what little chance I had at an exciting race with a spin coming out of the infield hairpin (in exactly the same manner as in race 1) and losing a bunch of time. The rest of the race was basically plugging in consistently fast laps and picking up the pieces left from other people's accidents and other suchlike misfortune.

That is, until the penultimate lap where I had a massive slide coming out of "Curvone", which allowed Gavin Wilson to close right up on me in his Cooper. We went side-by-side through the final corner, me on the outside, and I have the inside line for the first corner. Somehow I manage to accelerate sufficiently to surge slightly ahead of Gav before the esses, but inevitably out-brake myself and wash over to the right side of the track for the right-hander with Gav right beside me. Luckily for me, Gav suffers a small dose of wheelspin and I get the racing line for the hairpin. Had I been forced to the inside there, he surely would have made it past into and through "Semaforo". Naturally I get a small slide exiting the "Trincea" kink and Gav pounces, going for the outside heading towards "Cimini" for the last time. We go side-by side through both corners and it's now turned into a manhood/stupidity challenge as we accelerate towards the super-fast right hand kink. We actually touch going through the right hander, but GPL's netcode was feeling generous for some reason and didn't propel us both sky-high. I drew ahead and clinched 8th position by a single tenth of a second.

To briefly sum up the race: There's still life in the old girl, and Gav is the best guy for side-to-side battles!



The next round is at the Nordschleife, a track some would call my speciality. I've already started practising a tiny bit, and I can't wait for another exciting evening of Grand Prix Legends!

2008 GPL World Cup - Round 1

For the third time ever, there is a Grand Prix Legends World Cup, and this time I'm in it! The format is much the same as in any international tournament, with group stages before the elimiation rounds. Norway is in Group F together with the Czech Republic, Spain-3 and Québec. Now on to the race!

Track map

I qualified my BRM in 10th, a mere hundredth of a second ahead of the second BRM of Radek Petera from the Czech Republic. I was running comfortably in 9th, chasing Radek who had gotten ahead of me, until I spun off exiting the final corner on lap 4. This dropped me down to 15th, but I gradually worked my way back up to 10th until I spun off again in the same place on lap 20, losing one spot. I managed to re-take my position, and was catching the 9th placed Québec Ferrari towards the end, but the leader caught me and screwed everything up :p. The gap was 2 seconds at the line, compared with about 18 fifteen laps earlier.

The only BRM I didn't beat was Radek, who finished in 8th, but I reckon I could have finished ahead of him had it not been for mistakes early on in the race. In the end, though, Norway was the strongest team and I'm looking foreward to the next round :)

VT6 summary 2006/2007

There's still one race left to be run in VT6 at Sebring, but here's a quick summary of my season so far. The season started off at Mosport Park where I had an average race following not a whole lot of practise. I had a few good fights with Chris Kirk in the Ferrari, but he was always going to be the quicker of us two and I saw the last of him on lap 16. From then on it was just a matter of cruising in to a strong 8th position, unfortunately one lap down due to going off just after the Andretti "straight" near the end of the race, and winning the Division 2 race. We then moved on to Clermont Ferrand, a track where I've raced at many times before and have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was having a hell of a time before the race, fine-tuning my old setup and smashing my old best times to smithereens. Sadly, something happened come raceday and I'd lost quite a lot of pace and consistancy. I qualified 14th on the grid and after much spinning and crashing somehow found myself in 8th when I crossed the line, winning the D2 race yet again.

Next up was Watkins Glen, one of my favourite tracks, to be run with the shiny new sprint race and superpole format! For the first race there was a 15-minute qualifying session where I managed 8th on the grid and was running way up in 4th at halfway before spinning and dropping back to 8th. Then came the superpole, where one driver each had one shot at a pole time! I managed 9th on the grid this time and had a similar race as the previous one, except I didn't quite manage to get up to 4th, but in return managed to salvage 7th for the finish. Once again, D2 winner in both races. We then moved on to Dundrod, a smaller version of the Isle of Man TT Circuit. This was a complete disaster of a race, COMPLETELY unrelated to the fact that I hadn't even installed the track until 5 minutes into qualifying....ho-hum!

I fared slightly better at Spa-Francorchamps, but more inconsistancy didn't produce more than a 7th place from 8th on the grid. I had an exciting race, though! The most exciting I've ever had at Spa, seemingly always with a car nearby. Once again I won the D2 race, and this is about the time when the league admins started questioning my being in the second division due to romping home with the victory whenever I raced. Another D2 victory at the Watkins Glen 1948 course, despite much crashing, confirmed my jump up to the first division. This is when Dutchie newcomer Nick van der Voort came along, not only taking a fairly easy victory at Mexico but also beating me in the process! What nerve! I managed to win back some dignity at the next round at Leipzig, coming home in 8th after fighting tooth and nail for position with him in the closing stages.

Given how closely matched me and Nick were in the last two races I was allowed back into the second division in time for the next round at the principality in Monaco. Unfortunately for Nick he had rather a bad race and didn't really put up much of a fight. Not much happened in my race and I cruised in to a relatively safe 7th position overall, winning D2 again. It was all to go Nick's way at Snetterton though, when my internet mucked up and disconnected me in the middle of both sprint races. Needless to say, Nick won both races in D2 (the only D2 driver running that night apart from me) and took a large chunk out of my lead as we headed on to his home race at Zandvoort. Unfortunately for both him and the D2 championship he had a dreadful race and ended up finishing last out of all the 10 cars entered for the race. I had a smashing event, clocking up a new PB in qualifying and driving my nuts off to finish 5th from 8th on the grid. I wasn't able to attend the next race at Bathurst but even though Nick failed to finish, the D2 championship was already secured. The final round at Sebring will be run next Wednesday, on the 4th of April.