Wow, a year has passed already! And last year I had a sparring partner in Phil Perkins, leading to a great race set up after plenty of online hours together.

But this year, our time differences (opposite sides of the world) mean it's going to be different. Plus a different mod for the event.

Livery - is complete (thanks to Adam Rouse again) - images to be added soon, including my helmet design upgraded for the mod (my original design debuted in a GP3 league back in 2002!!!).

So - Qualifying. That's the first step. I've started off by transferring over my 2009 set up and amending to suit. Although it's a different mod, it seems to have made the change ok. Only slight amends necessary. And in online practice I'm currently stuck just a sliver above the 40 second mark. That's half a second quicker than I was around 4 hours of practice earlier!

BUT - today was an eye opener. 39.5's online. Now, I'm running 1 rear and front wing and that is flat for me, so clearly there is something somewhere that isn't quite right.

I seem to be scraping the ground through the corners which I'm guessing is scrubbing speed off, so will attempt to change that and see if it makes a difference.

Using my so called qualy set up, today I then filled her up with fuel and went out with no draft - 40.6 best and pretty darn stable!

Must admit I almost never tweak a set up for Qualifying, and started again on this one with race trim in mind. But I think I'll need to bring that gap down in Qualy fuel trim as I can't afford to get too near the bottom of the Qualifying pile.

On a more positive note, the server goes to a 5 lap race after each hour - and with 4 of us on track I managed to win that one (including some nice being overtaken and then overtaking of Neil Larsson).

Next installment soon.