So 2025’s been an interesting year for me in general. Between health issues and not getting the productivity things I’d have liked to have done this year, I’d be inclined to write it off if it weren’t for all the other amazing things that happened this year. Whilst I haven’t been as active musically as I’d have liked in a public sense, what I’ve done privately has made me very happy with my mixing skills to the point where I’m close to opening mix-for-hire commissions.

In terms of sim racing, too, I’ve been quite active this last 12 months. A lot of things have changed for me, most for the better, some for the worse but overall I see a slope upwards that I’m trending to as much as the numbers haven’t really shown it.

The big 3K

Last year I hit my target of finally hitting 3000 iRating on the open wheel side. I was very proud of this and I said to myself at the time that, no matter what, I did it and nothing could take that away from me. Shortly after in March I hit an even higher 3.2k, with a new goal of 3500 seeming quite realistic! I then promptly had one of the biggest slumps I can remember having with IndyCar and Super Formula, cratering back down to 2.5k.

I do, however, believe with a bit of effort and some more regular official races in categories I’m comfortable racing that 3500 isn’t just attainable, but a possible new floor if I really hunker down and make a push for 4k. I know I’m a damn good IndyCar racer on iRacing from the drivers I frequently race against. But the goal to start 2026 is to have the 3k back again and make that push for 3.5k.

My Indiana Friend

Last year I somehow made top split for the race on Sunday morning. I knew that this year I had to make a push to try and capture lightning twice in the same bottle.

By this point I was already good friends with the folks at Mirai United VRT and between Reska, Frankie, Lith and myself, all of us took to the week of qualifying with the aim to place within the top 100. I would end up falling short by some distance to Lith and Frankie in particular, but it was still enough for another run at the top split this year! Unfortunately my run was marred by issues caused by a faulty Fanatec driver. I would revert to an older, known driver the day after and my issues disappeared. But! It’s another top split start. :D

I also helped crew chief Frankie, Reska and Lith out the day prior, who in top split all had strong finishes. For me, it was another successful and fun month of May. Later on I would join the team as an invitee for a fun Nürburgring 24 hours.

Returning to the Glen

Alex and I have had some terrible luck in the iRacing 6 Hours of the Glen to the point where we just didn’t race it for a couple years. This year was different and I especially wanted to rid some bad memories of running on the podium, only for Alex to be sodomised by an LMP2 car coming up the esses with 3 laps to go. Knowing that we could finish the race before getting disqualified for not serving the meatball, we made the choice to keep driving - the car was damaged, but still driveable. What we didn’t notice at the time was the engine was pissing its oil out the back.

With two corners to go, on the final lap, the engine seized and blew up. To this day this moment still haunts me.

Finally with the motiviation to change things, Alex and I took the trusty Cadillac V-Series.R to the Glen, with the aim purely to finish the race.

The race started strong with me starting mid-field in our split, but through the opening stints I worked our way up to the podium spots. As the race developed, we eventually found ourselves lapped but in 2nd overall, with 3rd chasing us down in the final stint. I had opted to not take tyres for our final stint, as our fuel stop was too short to justify the tyre swap with only about 20 minutes to go. Despite my best efforts, however, we were caught on the final lap… and swiftly removed from the track in the toe of the boot. Still, we got the podium that we’d been after!

Future past

Next up was the Portimao 1000. I’d been excited all year for the event, and by this point I’d made the plunge into vtubing proper - and now a member of Mirai United VRT. Reska and I took the HPD ARX-01C for a thrashing throwback event around one of my favourite tracks, all the while I’d be distracted in my first stint by a moth that had some how gotten into my room…

But it was another certificate from a special event by the end of it. Reska and I got 3rd!

I had during the N24 made the joke that it was the first time in years that I’d driven a car that I didn’t actually paint in a team event. That didn’t last very long with me painting the HPD!

Le Mans

This is the one that I still can’t believe.

Back when I joined DHR, there was a little dream that I’d be able to win a 24 hour race at Le Mans. I reckoned that I was good in the sprint races and even the 6 hour endurances, usually performing towards the front in the splits I’d be put in, with a couple of sprint wins. In the Audi R18 it felt like I was able to perform around there. But whilst we’d run well, something would usually always happen that took us out of the running. A bump on the hard shoulder causing the car to spin out, an ill-timed move, snatching a brake, etc. It just didn’t really want to come together.

A couple years ago, though, iRacing released the Cadillac GTP car just in time for that season of the Global Endurance Tour, where the 6 races go from 6 hour races to 24 hour races to allow for a 24 Hours of Le Mans. I’d team up with Grizzle, Bailey, Hodge, Headless Joe and Coin, and our race went pretty great - almost faultless even - to finish on the podium only 2 minutes behind the leaders. The result we did get is amazing, but even in the days after, I couldn’t shake that feeling of we could’ve won this thing if a few things went differently. I took it as more motivation to do better the next time, especially as the slowest of our 6 (but not by much).

After racing the new Ford Mustang GT3 last year with DHR, I decided to this year race with Mirai as the energy in DHR had pretty minimal interest. I was joined by Aki, Asa, Victor and Blanny and was once again in the Cadillac, with Reska, Kat, Riley and Cob in the sister LMP2 car (racing in another split). The week of the race I was pretty relaxed and joking with Frankie the night before the race as we were doing some Indy NXT races - “I know Le Mans like the back of my hand, I’ve done a bit of practice, it’ll be fine.”

I knew the split we were going to be in wasn’t going to be a super high one so that added to feeling a bit relaxed about it. But I still wanted to do the best job I could for the sake of the team. Come Saturday morning and I’m in voice with Riley, making sure that we sign our cars up correctly and deciding that we’d just vibe in the same call for both cars for the time being.

I would qualify 2nd, missing pole by only half a second. I knew where the mistake was, though, so I felt quietly confident going into the race that we could have a fun battle in the first hour.

The pole sitter would then spin on cold tyres in the Forest Esses. I took the lead, and, well, we kept it. For 356 of the 398 laps in our split, winning the race by over a lap, with at one point putting three laps on the field allowing for a silly error in the early morning where I missed my braking into Indianapolis…

But we won. We fucking won Le Mans. I don’t care that it wasn’t a high split. We did it!

Closing words

There’s so much more I could go into detail about. How I had a strong iRacing IndyCar Series season, or the fun we had in the Sebring 12 hour with Grizzle’s paddle shifters not working, or getting 3rd in the Brickyard 400, or winning (admittedly a race of two drivers) Silver Cup in the SROL British GT series that we’ve just finished last week. But I wanted to touch on a few highlights of the year, and this is already quite the waffle! So I’ll cut it short here.

This year was a lot of fun. I made a lot of new friends and some real cool things ended up happening. I’ve had a blast racing so many kinds of cars in all sorts of sims that aren’t just iRacing - like the SROL GT1 series that Nate put on this year, or the Super Touring stream Jimmy recently had with Niels’ amazing mod in AMS. I joined a new team that’s helped keep me busy, and with that team forged new bonds that led to Lith getting intentionally wrecked by an Audi R18 in Sgt. Bash livery, for £1000 to charity, because of Jimmy calling me a traitor in the Race for Mental Health a few weeks ago and I feel like there’s still so much more to come.

As we approach December and the end of 2025, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s been there for me along the way. It means the world to me and I’d like to keep sharing what I love doing with you all for the next 12 months too. So be sure to keep checking in with the streams!

Peace!