far corner of my closet all three sets of wheels and pedals, declared GPL
the bane of my existence, and now I shall say goodbye to ras.
Since 14 April 2001, when I installed GPL, my handicap has fallen to 10.03.
Which isn't low enough. Stupidly, I insisted on beating the handicap game
before racing online, which I hear is incredibly fun. The handicap battle,
of course, can never be won--at least not by someone with my meager
talent--which meant that I was doomed to daily exercises in frustration as I
attempted to post new PBs with the same frequency as I did early on. (The
goal was to be negative, not to beat Huttu.) I ceased to enjoy racing
because I got angry if I wasn't lapping near my PB. What I needed was a
version of GPL that didn't show or even record lap times, just time
differences between drivers. Then, instead of cursing at the Glen because my
1:06.02 during qualifying isn't close to my PB of 1:05.79, I would see that
I've captured pole by being 0.2 seconds faster than Clark. I could have
posted a 1:10 and Clark a 1:10.20, but I wouldn't know it.
It is about winning races, isn't it? There has to be more to it than trying
to go around the track, all by myself, a tiny bit faster than I did
yesterday. When I can get over my fixation on PBs and handicap, I'll come
back. But for now, I'll just thank everyone here for all the help and the
friendly emails, and say goodbye.
--Jeff
+10.03 (final)