Happy Birthday, Franck Montagny!

Today is French racing driver Franck Montagny's 31st birthday. Why am I singling this out in particular. Over my time at Sidepodcast, Christine has taken a liking to him after seeing him at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2007 when he was still with Toyota as a test driver and noting he was just wandering about not doing anything special in particular because, well, I guess no-one really knew who he was.

Still, since his F1 testing days, he has gone on to bigger and better things. He produced a fantastic drive at last year's Le Mans 24 Hours for Peugeot, driving long stints at a brilliantly fast pace. His car could have even won the event had it not been for the incompetence of Christian Klien putting it in the gravel during the night. Still, he managed 3rd which is something to be proud of. He also came 2nd in his first Champ Car race last year as well, which was ironically the final race for the formula ever before the IndyCar Series took over, been a race winner for Acura in the American Le Mans Series AND raced for Team France in A1GP! Boy, does he get around or what!

Next season, we all hope it will be success all the way for Franck, who I actually class to be one of the best French drivers in the world right now, second only to Sebastien Loeb who quite frankly can drive anything with 4 wheels and beat the pants off of anyone around. But for now, here's to Mr Montagny reaching 31 years on this earth. Many happy returns, Franck, and all the best for 2009!

I am a Racing Driver (Sort Of)

As mentioned in my introductory post, I am a member of the Real Life BATracer community. It involves playing the browser-based racing simualtion game BATracer. But if you're wondering what it's all about, then wonder no more. Everything will be come clear as I open the doors to the RLB world.


Finding Your Feet
When you decide you want to be part of the fun, you first of all need to write an introductory roleplay. Roleplays, I hear you ask? Yes, you heard correctly. A roleplay is where you write a fantasy news story or personal account of an event such as a qualifying session, a race, a team launch, etc. The RLB is more centered on your RP capabilities than how you perform in the game itself. On-track results do obviously matter to an extent, but your ability to translate those results and happenings into words matters more, especially when it comes to finding a drive for the following season.

An introductory roleplay gives the other members of the community a chance to assess your potential as a top flight driver. Therefore it is recommended you put a lot of thought and effort into it to make the best initial impression possible. You'll get some comments about it and some friendly welcomes out of it too. The RLB community is an altogether friendly and supportive one, so don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any.

Moving up the Ladder
So, you've announced your arrival. Your next objective is to find a place on a team in the starter series we call Formula Trinity. The way to do this is to sign up for tests and roleplay on the results as best you can. Obviously the more work you put into it, the better your chances are of securing a drive for the upcoming season. Currently, RLB has 3 championships which all ascend in such a way that it's like climbing up the ladder to the top flight. Here is a typical RLB journey:

Formula Trinity --> IndyCar --> F1

You'd typically run one season in FT to begin with and gain experience. You'll start off with an Amatuer licence but if the Licence Commitee feel your RP quality over the season is good enough, they will upgrade it to a ProLicence (allowing competition up to IndyCar) and finally a SuperLicence to allow entry to Formula 1. But to maintain these licences, you have to keep your roleplay quantity and quality up. Let it slip too much and you'll find it being downgraded.

My Racing CV
So what's my history in the RLB? Well, I'll be honest - it's a turbulent one. That's certainly the best way to describe it. I started with Davidson-Rees Motorsport in the first ever FT championship and came joint 8th on 74 points. That season also saw me fill in at Toyota for the last 2 races and score a surprise 6th in Brazil. I started the 2nd season of FT before grabbing an opening at Spyker where my best finish was 9th twice. I only lasted until Monza where I lost my licence altogether over a fairly minor issue (which I won't go into detail about). I came back for FT Season 4 with Petronas Concept Racing and won my first RLB race at Mid-Ohio from 13th on the grid. This performance was good enough for 2 seasons at Force India, which sadly was a complete letdown. From a total of 36 races for the team, I scored no more than 3 points altogether.

Right now I am racing for Andretti Green Racing in the IndyCar series and so far I place 9th in the standings with a best qualifying of 5th and a 2nd place at Nazareth to my name. The next race coming up is the legendary Indy 500 and qualifying will advance in a couple of days time. I'm hopeful this season I can get back to F1 as I've drastically improved and strengthened my commitment to the RLB. Over the course of the rest of the season, I will post my thoughts on it all as well as my RPs for each session. I want to let you into this community and let you see what I do and how I do it. I hope you enjoy.