Recently, I have been participating in the AutoClubRevolution.com Closed beta. It is a free to play online racing game MMO and has been a great game to date. I cannot go into any further detail as to what the game contains but I have enjoyed being a part of it and this week, I have also won a competition in designing a NASCAR themed livery on a Vauxhall VXR8. Here is my entry:

It is based on the number 42 car of Juan Pablo Montoya's NASCAR race car from around 2007.

I painted it using the ACR's in game decal design tool.

I am pleased with the way it looks and there were some very good entries into it.

The winning prize is a Ford GT in the open beta. I can't wait to give it a go!

For more information on the Auto Club Revolution game, visit this website: http://www.autoclubrevolution.com or visit their Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/AutoClubRev

Myself and Dave raced around Birmingham with the aim of completing a 24 hour race. Unfortunately, all did not go to plan. We qualified in 7th position which was quite a promising start but on the warm up lap, we had problems with the car and had to then start in last position (33rd). Furthermore, I was driving the first stint but on the first lap after a standing start, I misjudged a breaking point and hit the back of a competitors car, resulting in our car being damaged and needing to be repaired. I returned to the pits for repairs, rejoined the race dead last and a lap down on all other cars! A bad start, but we had a long way to go and in 24 hours, anything could happen and being around 1 minute 26 seconds (an average lap time) down would not be a real problem in the end.

I trooped on, unlapping myself from many cars and after 3 hours and 3 pit stops, I had managed to unlap and overtake positions up to 10th place. The car felt great and it was now time for Dave to have his first stint in the car. Unfortunately, we knew that this was our most at-risk time period where drivers are swapping. The new driver is not in the zone like the previous driver, nor is he used to the car and it's limits. The chances of a good lap time was very slim, and the chances of making mistakes was high. This was to be the undoing of our race as Dave clipped a tyre barrier on the second chicane of the circuit, sending him into the gravel with a wheel missing and badly damaged engine & suspension. It was the end of our race, after 3 hours and 30 mins. Dave had his head on his steering wheel, in absolute dismay at his error. We were both gutted that we were unable to finish the race after all the preparation work that we had put into it. We had both mentally prepared for such an event however and shrugged it off, calling it a racing incident and proceeded to play Battlefield 3 for the rest of the day!

Until next time... safe driving everyone ;)

We found problems with the Thermalito circuit whilst testing in longer endurance racing tests. We found that the AI cars were struggling with overtaking at the first and second tunnels which meant that a lot of the LMP1, LMP2 and Prototype cars were crashing out early in the race. A great shame as we really loved this circuit to race on but we want to race a good, long and fair race so we have had to abandon Thermalito.

Our new track? Birmingham, Alabama!

I've never raced on this track but Mr.Dave has extensive knowledge of the circuit so we decided to give it a go. I did a practice run on Thursday and although I prefer Thermalito overall, I still enjoyed the ride and some of the highly technical corners of Birmingham will provide an extra challenge in our 24 hour race next week.

Armed with the new circuit, I prepped the car - again, maximum downforce, maximum acceleration setup and I set a practice race for 25 hours condensed into one golden hour. This would mean that I would experience pit stops, night racing, tyre degredation etc and traffic all in the space of a 1 hour race. I faired pretty badly at first, totally fluffing my initial starting fuel load but I did manage to claw some places back to finish 40th out of 54 as well as put up the fastest lap in the GT1 class. A good sign. It served it's purpose of highlighting some issues that we will need to bear in mind for the big race.

Firstly, the Birmingham circuit is able to handle 60+ drivers on a starting grid. This is fine, but when it comes to pitting, the cars get pretty stacked up and a couple of times I ended up waiting behind an LMP car to get out of my pit box! My only other issue was I need to remember - MAKE SURE I SET THE FUEL LOAD BEFORE THE RACE! hehe Pitting after 4 laps of starting was no fun at all, because it put me a lap behind and right in the way of the much faster LMPs!

Anyway, here is a couple of videos of my hot lap during the race: