The blog's 100th post

Greetings Internet,

It may be a very unfavourable hour of the morning at the moment but given events in the past hour it might be time to complete this post - although it may end up being tomorrow by the time I actually finish this thing making all the references to time in this post so far completely irrelevant but never mind.

Since the inception of this corner of the internet first created in 2010 around mid-season but first saw activity on the run up to the start of the 2011 season helped a little by the cancellation of the Bahrain GP of that year, life here in the dark corner that is blog HQ has seen many highs and lows. Mainly depending on the cushion I happen to be sitting on to make up for the massive lack of height that seems to be a problem in my microcosm. I have seen reader levels and view counts rise and fall dramatically never reaching particularly grand heights, just like me I suppose, but it has functioned. Gaining the attention of people across the planet - although I'm not entirely sure what has happened to the people from Singapore, hello there the blog does miss you. But there has been an increase in readers in Japan and that does make the blog very happy indeed, which is good to see. I does make you wonder if the figures on the stats page are simply automated web spiders and crawlers pottering about and just happening upon this part of the world.

However as is the norm here, I seem to have digressed into the realm of audience figures but in reality without the audience however many of you are actual people then this minor project would be completely pointless. Most of the things I end up doing fall into futility but this seems to have avoided that fate and in a way I have the people out there on the internet to thank for that, I would offer bonus points to those who have been here since the very inception in Australia in 2011, mainly for compensation for putting up with the nonsense I keep babbling on about. However that would become rather challenging to check, validate and then distribute the points - so you can have moral bonus points instead, which aren't really exchangeable to regular bonus points and apparently ASDA don't recognise them as currency. Which was a shame because I did feel like a chocolate bar for keeping this place running for so long without making a complete hash of it, even though recent posts have been off schedule and lacking a certain finesse they should have been presented with.

Me Vs the Internet once more

Now I think it is time to move onto another interesting development in the blog's history, over recent months the blog has taken to competing against the internet in an online racing league using the same simulator that the videos have been filmed with. Normally with rather disappointing results, as the videos have shown I really am no good at this racing lark and have a tendency to crash into things and lose wheels. When competing on the internet, I tend to use somewhat easier cars to drive than the blogmobile although there is a series open to use the DP01 from last season, so less wheels are shed in the process. I have been competing in the BMW E21 series for a couple of races and seemed to finish consistently on the outside of the top 10 from qualifying a lot further back and progressing through attrition.

This time there was a single one off event posted on the league site for off-road buggies in conjunction with a BAHA event happening in the US where the site is based, running on a long 10 mile off road track in a similar setting. Two classes were competing in the event, for two different chassis and engine combinations and the entry list did seem a little thin as only 11 drivers had signed up and five in my class. But when the server was loaded only seven cars seemed to have actually arrived and only three of those were in my class, so even if I crashed and exploded on the opening lap, the blog would claim a podium finish, which was nice.

The grid 

After qualifying the blog lined up third on the grid and second in class which in the whole history of the blog and in the years before racing under the flag of the blog is the highest ever qualifying position (with the small exception of the initiation race drivers used to need to complete before competing) has ever attained. The race was scheduled to run to a distance of one hour requiring a pit stop in the middle for fuel and tyres for the open half a lap the blog did have a bit of a bother and fall down to last but by the end of the first lap through accidents in the mountain and a really steep impossible hill section ended up leading the class. I couldn't really believe it either rather

The treacherous mountain pass

From this point the blog lead the race for the next half an hour with 30s back the next car in class which was piloted by a much faster driver who set pole 10s faster than any lap the blog had managed. But with that much of a lead I thought it would be a good idea to stay out for an additional lap from the pit strategy decided pre-race, on the idea that changing the tyres later would make the car faster at the end when others would be slower. But on a lap that is 10 miles long, on worn tyres is not the grandest of plans, suffice to say I lost a massive amount of time and was caught by the car behind. What made matters worse was that the chasing car had already mad his stop and therefore was 30s ahead in real-time, but there was the small matter of the impossible hill...

The class leaders vs the impossible hill

On really worn tyres at this point the hill became all too challenging and the car refused to climb it, a similar problem befell the other cars in the class and we all spent a long time taking runs up to escape the gully. Some considerable time later and allowing the overall leader to escape beyond all reach the off-road blogmobile was able to leave the trap ahead of the other cars and regain the lead of the class. 

From that point is was clear sailing to the finish as looking at the final results the other cars that were trapped were disqualified by the game's internal regulations, likely for travelling too far the wrong way down the track to get a big enough run to clear the mountain. So albeit a little be default which is not the ideal way of doing things, the blog claimed it's first ever win in competition with the internet. A historic moment and the perfect use for this the one hundredth post from blog HQ, so while I now prepare for the upcoming Canadian GP I shall bid thee farewell from me here at a now victorious blog HQ.