Part I : Online Racing ...

My online gaming 'career' started way back in 2005.

I bought "Grand Prix Legends" from a bargain bin for about R90. I've always been into racing and played just about every racing game on every platform up until then, and this game blew me away. It was what I've always wanted in a racing game; a real driving simulator.

I played around with the cars and pushed harder and harder. Trying to last a race distance was almost impossible, but I wasn't going to lower the difficulty level just to finish a race.

While I was playing around, I stumbled upon a 'ranking' site. My eyes almost popped out my head when I saw how many other people were playing the same game. Not only were they talking about the same game (until now I felt like the only guy in the world who played racing games this seriously), they were also uploading their laptimes onto a server. I could do the same and compare how I was doing with their times. It didn't require anyone to race together on the same track yet it gave me targets to beat.

After a few weeks of uploading times, I finally managed to get a national ranking. I pushed my way up the leader-board little by little until I made it into the top 10 in South Africa.

I found that the other drivers were playing with a 'modern' game called Nascar 2003 by Papyrus. I got the game and played around with it. I mean, if they liked racing as much as I did and they recommended a game, I had to at least try it.

I played around with N2003 for about a month before looking online for patches and game updates. There were versions of the game that were so heavily modified that it was hard to even see any resemblance to the original game. I tried some of them out and time flew by. One minute it was 5pm, relaxed in front of the pc, starting the game... next thing it was 3am...
I was addicted! (In a good way!)

I started searching online for ranking systems in South Africa to compare my lap-times with and found a group on racers based in SA who ran their own league... SARL. There is only 1 online racing league in South Africa, and they happened to run N2003 with exactly the same mod! What luck! I couldn't believe it!

I signed up straight away. It was Saturday morning and their next race was going to be held later that evening. I had a lot to learn before starting...