Stuff and Junk

Ok, yes, this is really nerdy, but when you have a family and you can’t afford to go racing anymore, iRacing fills a certain gap. One of the things I miss about real racing was the telemetry and data, although the ol’ sports sedan and prod cars never had this level of detail either!!

I have to admit though, I have learnt a lot about setting up a car with iRacing and this sort of stuff makes it easier, and more interesting.

How to;

While in iRacing you turn on telemetry (Alt-L),  the exporter gets the data out of iRacing (download here) and converts it into MoTec format. Download the MoTec i2 Pro and create a new project, open the log files and away you go.

A project already setup by Remy Lozza is available here and read more on the iRacing forum thread.

This was one of those right place, right time moments for what was one of the biggest crashes in V8 Supercars history. Firstly Steve and Karl are relatively ok, Karl has burns to his hands that need some attention. More on that here.

I had been getting a couple of shots on the grid and once the cars started their warm up lap I quickly ran around the back of the pits and jumped up in the grandstand to get some shots of the start. Still had it in manual mode from the grid and just had a second to set my levels and the race started, initially shooting the leaders as they launched and then seconds later felt this huge hit of heat on the side of my face, looked to my right and this was the first shot I got off;

Just kept smashing the shutter button without even checking levels, they were slightly under exposed but I think that actually worked out better for most of them considering the light coming from the fire ball. You can see the twirl of air as the heat of the explosion headed upwards.

I didn’t see Steve get out of his car, but he got out first. Karl took some time getting out which left everyone holding their breath.

Crews from all over the place jumped the pit wall and started attacking the fire with any extinguishes they could get their hands on.

The fire itself was out pretty quick, first shot 10:39:24, last shot was 10:39:58.

Video here and the in-car shot;

What I love about this video is not only that Joel actually managed to pull it off and build a V8 Supercar powered skateboard, but this was shot on a Canon 5D and it looks superb!

Simply shot and nicely edited. Looks great!

The amount of times I’ve found myself in a shopping centre browsing for products thinking to myself, why can’t they just build an online app for this? It would make it so much easier to find what I want. A fridge is the perfect example. Why doesn’t fridge shops have an online app where I can plug in my dimensions, select what I want, then just show me what fits.

Being a programmer makes this extra frustrating because it really quite a simple thing to build if you have the content. The content is easy to, that’s just however many hours for a temp to plug it all in.

Then you come across a site like lenshero.com. Ahhh, now THAT’s how you do it! Easy.

If you want to buy a lens, tell the site what camera you have, what lens you want, or what you already own, and they show you the results. Simple. Love it!

Ken Block once again shows how to produce a viral video. Awesome.

This was a fantastic event in the V8 Supercar calendar, the racing was great and the off track entertainment was also awesome. The Townsville track is not your usual street circuit, not only you can see so much of the track from so many different angles and locations, but it encourages great racing as well. Each corner has a unique an setup to produce strong competitive driving.

V8 Fujitsu Development Series

V8 Utes

Full Set

V8 Supercars: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8SC_2010_Townsville_Sat
V8 Fujitsu Series: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8FS_2010_Townsville_Sat
V8 Utes: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8utes_2010_Townsville_Sun