Wow, where to begin? So since my last post about the World GT Championship at Monza, there's been a lot going on. The COVID-19 lockdown restrictions had come into play a bit before that, but let's face it, that's not news to anyone. From my side of things though, there's not really much that's the same as it was... so I'll walk you through some of the key points.
The Rebrand
So the Chazlington name is no longer the face of the brand - my company is still Chazlington Ltd. but the trading face of it is now Chaz Draycott Media. I felt that this was a necessary change as the name Chazlington and overall feel I'd given the colour scheme was very amateur-looking. It didn't really have the ability to match up with anything and just looked rushed, so the Chaz Draycott Media logo was made (by Bef - thank you!) and a lot of branding options were opened up to me. I wanted to go with something clean so chose this rather minimalistic font and a combination of white, two shades of blue and black - a combo that admittedly seems very popular at the moment. I hope everyone sees it as a step in the right direction and agrees that it looks a lot more thought out.
The New Website
You're on it. Look at it.
The New House
Anyone that knows me well enough will know I've been in a long-distance relationship for about the last three years with Bef, as she moved to London to pursue her dream and work in a top packaging design agency. At the beginning of 2020, Bef made the decision to move home and - oddly enough - came back the day before lockdown got announced! She was living between her Mum's house and mine during lockdown and every day that went by reminded us that we didn't quite have the space to accomodate for having two workspaces (including one where I commentate) and a bedroom for Harry that remained undisturbed by the noise.
We weren't looking for that long before we found a house we liked the look of - a relatively new house in a good-looking area that was a lot quieter. I'm still not sure why to this day, but Bef decided to take the per-month price cap off and search the area as it seemed very pleasant and just a few doors down was the house I'm now sat in while writing this. We secured ourselves a lovely four-bedroom three-storey house which has more than enough space for everything, while accomodating everyone's needs and not getting in the way of one another.
I'll do a "studio tour" of my office soon enough, but as you can imagine there's always little improvements and bits that need to be done, so you'll have to wait. Here's a teaser shot from a few days ago.
The British Boring Car Championship
Years ago, I wanted to create a one-off event utilising the great community we had behind the Kia Optima on iRacing and stage a race meeting using old supertouring liveries on the much-loved/much-hated not-quite touring car. It never materialised though due to being busy and realising it was a lot of organisation for a one-off event.
Over lockdown though, I saw an opportunity and some free Thursday nights and thought "stuff it!" let's get the content together to at least create the series, put a funny little video out and see what sort of reaction it gets.
Well, it went down brilliantly to say the least and once the date came around for drivers to submit an entry, we doubled the grid size in the first 48 hours! The racing has been incredible and the drivers are all really enjoying themselves. We still have one round to go as I write this, with a tiny margin of points between Dave Waldoch and Dennis Melchert, with the Teams Championship pretty much wrapped up by the former's team MightJustFit. A second season is already in the works and should launch in the next few months
Also, through a combination of this series and lockdown bringing big names to the Esports stage, I've had the brilliant experience of commentating along side BTCC and GT World Challenge Commentator David Addison, who very kindly came on board to cover the championship, which brings me on to my next point...
Commentary Opportunities
With the rise of Esports over lockdown, I've been handed a lot of great chances to commentate on (and take part in) some brilliant events. I raced in the VMO SRTCUK event against the likes of Colin Turkington, Paul O'Neill, Max Coates, Mike Epps, Abbie Eaton and Tom Brooks, who was my teammate for the #GetThisBread 3 Hour Charity Race on iRacing.
Commentary-wise I've gotten involved in a lot of different series and met somre fantastic characters from world of motorsport. One of the first events I was asked to commentate on was the Motorsport UK Karting Eseries with Alpha Live, where I worked with Chris McCarthy - a good friend that I'd commentated with before, and eventually saw me commentate on Kartmasters 2020 at PFi!
That was followed by a EuroNASCAR one-off event on iRacing that I broadcasted myself. Off the back of that, the Vertex Stock Car Cup came about and enlisted my help for Season 1, bringing seasoned real-world commentator Chris Dawes in for Season 2!
Things with Simracersworld™ TV have progressed ever further, bringing more commentators and broadcasters on board with a lot of different series to cover. The channel has grown very quickly, hitting 1,000 subscribers on YouTube in the first 6 months of broadcasting.
I'm being offered some fantastic opportunities at the minute and still can't believe how quickly I've got to a position to be considered for them. I'm very grateful all the same and hope that it continues.
Overall, 2020 has actually turned into a great year for me so far - despite the COVID-19 outbreak setting back a lot of plans - and I can't wait to see what the remaining months have to offer. It's fantastic to be back with a brand new website and I hope to see you all enjoying it and keeping up to date with what I'm up to!