Tonight at Mid-Ohio in a Jaguar lightweight 5-speed E-Type was supposed to be my first outing with the R2P NASRL Vintage Series league -- I had raced with the NASRL folks a bit in GTL, but this would have been my first organized outing in the GTR2 Power & Glory cars.

Notice yet how I'm speaking in the past tense? "Was supposed to be" . . . "would have been" . . . etc.

Yeah, me too -- I noticed that it was going to be past tense as soon as GTR2/P&G locked-up on me before I even made it to the starting grid. Still kinda steaming about it, too.

There's irony afoot here, because in the prerace message thread for this race I made a post in response to some discussion about disconnects indicating that to some degree disconnects actually ADD to the realism, serving as virtual "mechanical failures," if you will. I even mentioned Parnelli Jones in the Turbine car at Indy in 1967.

Yeah, I'm a regular fountain of wisdom, aren't I?

Before the race even started, it seemed like the server was having some problems -- I was able to connect for open practice before the actual race practice period, but then I had trouble connecting after the server progressed to the "actual" race practice session. I think someone rebooted the server, because it seemed like quite a few of us were having the same problem.

Once I connected, I was able to practice and qualify; I sat out during the warmup session because I already had my race setup figured out, so I just chilled a bit and watched others turn laps. Then, when the session progressed to the race, we all gave rounds of "GLA!" in chat, then after I saw a two or three others proceed to the track, I clicked on the "Drive" button in the menu to take my car to the track, and GTR2/P&G locked-up on me.

Yup. Locked-up. Hard.

I'm pretty sure that expletives are frowned upon hereabouts, but regardless of what I have said in the past about disconnects adding to the realism, I am very, VERY ticked. I had qualified with a new PB (finally dipped below 1:45 into the 1:44 range -- 1:44.611, I think), which put me seventh on the grid (out of 8). I figured that the back of the pack would be a good starting spot for my first R2P/NASRL race, so I was pretty happy.

Now, not so much so.

There was no way I could have been a contender to win -- or even place or show, for that matter, given the other fast guys in the field -- but I was looking forward to trying to put in a clean race for my first outing. Heck, it was a non-points pre-season race . . . what better place to make your first "noob" mistakes, right?

So much for that.

Anyway, no points lost, but this did make for a rather crappy way to end the weekend (which was already crappy in other ways that involved a sick -- make that VERY sick -- dog and lots of carpet cleaning). Thankfully, the dog's fine and, frankly, so am I.

All part of the learning experience -- and let me tell you, I HAVE learned.

The next time someone complains about disconnects being a pain, I will be right there with them singing lamentations, brother.

Now, somebody pass me a beer -- I'm going to go sulk on the couch and do my best "Steve McQueen after crashing at LeMans" impression for a while. Never fear, though, I won't wallow for TOO long because it's never too early to start preparing for the first points race of the season. That's the first rule of racing, isn't it? "Always forward, never back."

Final parting thought: The Jag lightweight E-Type 5-speed in Briggs Cunningham livery in the Power & Glory mod is one SWEET ride, and Mid-Ohio is a fantastic track -- WAY better than the version I remember from the old IndyCar Racing II days.

Damn -- that made me grin. So much for sulking . . . but the beer is non-negotiable.

;-)