The Valiant Knight

16/08/2024

WE DID IT! - TOP 10, nobody handed us this one, sure some things went our way but that's just racing and I can confidently say I earned this result - which, if you know me, is a pretty rare admission. This is my top 10 in any competitive field after 2 long years - oh and my first Pro-Am class win too!

My very first race with was almost exactly 2 years ago at Silverstone in the 2022 Rookies series. So it's surprisingly fitting to not only take my very first top 10 here at that same track, but to even do it in exactly the same car as well! - who says the GTR is dead?

After last week, I had pretty low expectations here and was merely aiming to prove that my race craft is still worthy of the high standards I put out there. In the end however, despite the car not being anywhere near as strong as it was in previous rounds - it all just came together.

We not only managed a clean race with no incidents, but we got the result we thew away last week as well.

Couldn't be happier - we have a break now but very keen to keep going and see where we end up next time out at Paul Ricard!

WE DID IT! - TOP 10, nobody handed us this one, sure some things went our way but that's just racing and I can confiden...

31/05/2024

Sometimes you get to work on something "for the love" this was a fun project to work on, bringing my sim racing together with my experience in video editing to create something for the community.

31/05/2024

02/03/2024

Last weekend was a blast! - read the full report here:

https://thevaliantknight.com/stories/2024/5/2/duos1r1

24/02/2024

Kicking off Tonight! - It's time for the Duo Series where teams of 2 battle it out on track over 3 hours. The first season will be a tour of the United States, kicking off with crowd favourite Watkins Glen.

I'm joined by Scarnie in the GTR for this series and it looks to be a cracker. It all kicks off at 6:30pm AEDT tonight so come on by and show your support!

twitch.tv/thevaliantknight

31/01/2024

it's been a week and I've already backflipped right back into the old GTR 😂

This wasn't a problem with the Porsche - I actually really enjoyed it, but in typical fashion a new update came out for ACC that gave the old Nissan a really big boost (the first in a very long time) - so I just had to try it out.

Racing again tonight at Silverstone, jump on twitch at 7:30pm AEDT and check it out! - twitch.tv/thevaliantknight

24/01/2024

New Year, New Season, New Colours and a New Car!

Racing kicks off again tonight with Octane Online Racing at COTA. Looking forward to getting the new wheels out on track, it's quite different to the old Nissan and a bit more challenging but it's really engaging to drive so I'm looking forward to getting it out there under race conditions.

Been quite sick for the last week so haven't had heaps of seat time to prepare and my voice is still a bit croaky but I decided I'll stream the race still anyway. We're back in a more reasonable time slot for once, with the race kicking off at 7:30pm AEDT - hope to catch you there!

twitch.tv/thevaliantknight

23/01/2024

07/01/2024

Let's talk about AI art for a bit? I've been doing a lot of reading and reflecting on the topic.

I find myself at a strange intersection with it and I'm curious to see where others stand.

I have no problem with the 'tech' itself (other than the label "AI" being misleading). It can be an amazing creative too, be it for generating quick ideas, or simplifying that which previously took tedious amounts of manual labour (rotoscoping, background replacement etc.).

Where it gets tricky for me is the actual implementation in practice. While the potential of the above is fantastic, what we actually seem to be using it for most of the time is generating more cheap, generic and forgettable 'content'.

Now, those out there will wonder what's different - we did that before anyway. The difference now is that we can generate this content faster than ever before, with less effort than ever before and because we've removed any actual artists from the equation - there's not even jobs being generated - let alone the chance of any actual artistic merit or personal voice being developed.

It's enabling lazy 'content' to fill out screens and time. Again, not a new thing, but the speed and volume is a concern for me because how can an individual or even group keep up with this using more 'traditional' methods.

I feel like the real victims of this movement will be all those artist's voices we never see or hear because they are buried in the sludge of 'content'.

This is independent of whatever tools they might use, as I do believe there are ways to use this new tech that have artistic and commercial merit without loosing a sense of uniqueness or individuality.

That is however ignoring the ethical issues with many of these tools - but that's probably something best left discussed another time...

31/12/2023

Happy New Year! - Here's my final top selection of liveries from the year.

Once again, thank you to everyone who kept me going through 2023 - be that through financial support or just being there to listen. It's all been really appreciated and I'm hoping for bigger and better things in 2024

Quite a few changes to come on the streaming/content side, so stick around - still plenty more to come from me in this new year.

31/12/2023

Here's the next batch of my favourite Livery designs from the year (7 - 4)

Hope everyone has a good night tonight - be you out partying or just relaxing at home, cheers to you all!

Thank you again for sticking around this year. It's been a tough one for me, lots of big changes and I'm still waiting for it all to settle down - but Sim Racing, streaming and sharing all this content with you has kept be going through some of the hardest times.

a few more to go yet, see you on the other side!

31/12/2023

Figured I'd close out the year with a showcase of some of my favourite Livery designs I've done for 2023. (10 - 8)

These are in no particular order but they represent my overall top 10 of the year. Thanks to everyone who reached out for designs this year, I got to experiment and try a whole bunch of new techniques which taught me a lot.

I think I've produced some of my best work this year and it wouldn't be possible without people bringing me all these challenges - so thanks again.

Stick around, more to come.

23/12/2023

Kicked off the holiday season by checking out some Assetto Corsa mods that I've been sleeping on. These 60s Prototypes by the awesome folks at THRacing (thracing.de) not only look great, but they're fantastic to drive too. Where better than classic Le Mans to test them out?

Look out for a stream with these lovey babies soon.

21/12/2023

We've reached the end. Final race of the season and my last proper event for the year.

We're closing out our little tribute season with Godzilla herself, the venerable R32 in the livery it sported as Jim Richards told everyone "you're a pack of ar**holes" for booing the monster at Bathurst in it's final year there.

Not a stunner as far as liveries go, but a classic and is how I always remember the GT-R. A fitting way to farewell the year, season and car itself (for real this time 😂)

Come by for the race tonight, 9pm AEDT on twitch ( twitch.tv/thevaliantknight )

14/12/2023

Back to Sprint racing this week at Oulton Park and we're bringing the next tribute livery with us.

This round we pay tribute to something more local. This livery was used in the late 80s by Gibson Motorsport - basically the defacto Nissan factory team in Australia at the time.

While the R31 GT-R was never quite able to deliver on Nissan's lofty ambitions at the time, it wasn't far off - and would be an important stepping stone.

It wouldn't be long before they'd awaken the real monster...

Livestream as always @ 9pm AEDT tonight - twitch.tv/thevaliantknight