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I Think It's Time...

27.02.2024 - ... To bid farewell to MRC.

... For a while, at least, maybe.

For no reason other than life and time needing my attention, and the ever-growing chasms of time between login's. I've found myself forgetting the simplest things, and - through a mixture of health concerns and life commitments - I'm nothing more than a fringe user now. The benefits of daily logins have long since expired, and the drive to climb the ranks of driver ratings that used to be a passion of mine have paled into obscurity.

But allow me to sign off with grace and virtue:

This game has been a mainstay of my life for 15 years (yes, genuinely) after signing up on a whim on my lunch break with a long-since-retired manager, friend and colleague iHealy back in 2009 when the game was still in BETA! In that time I've managed Guy Wellington, the first driver to properly usurp long-standing UK#1 Daphne Flower, and broke the World Ranking Top 20, despite never actually achieving anything of worth. Following Guy was another "nearly" driver, Ray Striver, who rose to the "nearly" heights of UK#2 before retiring on the eve of Nations Cup going live and effectively binning off one of our major chances to show up and deliver...

Skipping a few nigh-on worthless drivers, we come to the legendary Mack Zaggro, a driver who redefined capabilities and was, in his heydey, Britain's most accomplished Indy driver. After missing out on the Indy title by a mere handful of points, Zaggro was tasked with a swansong season of turning everything up to 100, and purposefully pitting on a strategy that gave him fumes and fresh tyres for the final few laps to absolutely demolish some lap records! A task that paid off, as he still holds 26 lap records in total, 8 of which are Indy Race lap records!

Alas, despite coming so unbearably close to both SuperFormula and Indy titles, Mack too took retirement in his prime, as UK#2...

Before the man, the myth, the Welshman; Wynn Hunter and his frankly absurd, game-changing charge to stardom. Starting out with a Rookie campaign in NASC Canada, where he began his winning ways with an unprecedented title win before MRC's rally announcement saw his trajectory turned upside down (or, sidewards, on opposite lock). Hunter was seemingly one of the only drivers to focus solely on rally skills in anticipation of the upcoming discipline, marching to relatively easy WRS2 title, and WRS title four times on the bounce, followed by five consecutive Runner-Up campaigns behind rally protege Visvaldis Cels. To this day, Hunter still holds 42 stage records in Rally!

Truth be told, Wynn Hunter's meteoric rise to record-breaking fame actually kinda broke the game for me in the short-term at least... Over a decade of trial and error, chasing titles I never claimed, pursuing the lofty heights of multiple UK#1 spots, I've been UK Ambassador, a community leader, a Developer, UK President for countless seasons, welcomed as part of the MRC team, co-launched Windsor Alliance Racing when F1 went live (who are now Aston Martin) and partly instrumental in making rally what rally is now.

I fondly recall crazy stuff, like being part of a 3-way photo-finish of 0.057 seconds in one of the inaugural bike races, crossing the line with an accumulated 116% damage in a private cars race, qualifying several weeks behind the rest of the field in an F3 glitch, and (genuinely) taking a break from my own wedding reception to set up my cars for a night race... I think Ray Striver may also be one of (if not the...) only driver to go from Pole, to last, to first, to last, to first and win in a single race...

MRC is not something I'll walk away from entirely, maybe this will become a short-lived hiatus... But, I can't find the drive, or the time to commit, and I'm more-so bothered by the aftermath of forgetting races and setups than I (possibly) will be at not having to remember. I think I need need some Daniel Ricciardo thinking time to rediscover the passion... Or I'll go full Rosberg and bail...

Either way, if this is the last proactive input I see in the game, please know it is not the game that has forced me away, more my ever-changing landscape...

To all who have shared this experience in the decade-and-a-half that I've bothered you all, I can only say thank you, for being digital friends and confidants in ways that many 3D humans never were.