History
Starting out with Grand Prix 2, this was my first real introduction to simulations, since then my personal library of racing games has grown and grown. GP2 was also the first time I started to put things into a game myself and it started off with my own helmet design, which I keep to this day in all my online sims the only difference being that back in 1997 my first design was yellow and black looking like a checkered flag, it has evolved into a white and black design but the concept is still the same. My involvement with racing sims has ranged from casual modding in the early days of GP2 (most notable of which would be the 2 seater arrows model for the game and also Martin Brundle's race school mod based on the 1999 Jordan and the ITV coverage at the time) to running a development team which was developing it's own game based on the 1977 formula 1 season using the original netkar engine before it disbanded. It wasn't until racing with Grand Prix 3 "online" I discovered how much fun it was to compete against other racers "online".
Here is a brief history.
Here is a brief history.
2000/2001 - Vermin Racing Team was born. supporting myself (Tippet) and another sim driver , we looked around at some games at the time and decided to race in Grand prix 3. We found a league and this was the first time Vermin Racing was entered to race online. It was a league done by saving your race replays and hotlaps then uploading them and they were compared with other drivers in the league. it was the only way GP3 could be played online at the time, and not a very good system which was open to abuse and cheating. However it provided one of the most memorable moments for the team and Tippet in GP3. Winning at the Monaco grand prix after hitting the barriers and losing the nose cone, coming into the pits to get it changed and then crossing the finishing line with a 40 second lead over the next competitor. This was one of the 2 victories Tippet had in a 8 race season, gaining podiums and good points in the other races meant Vermin Racing finished runner up as a constructor that season and myself finishing 3rd in the drivers, but things became sour in the GP3 league community and we did not continue racing in the league after that.
2000-2010 Racing online was infrequent due to time and other commitments such as racing go karts and working for a race driver at Castle Combe and eventually doing some laps at Castle Combe in a formula ford, . No leagues were entered, although at there were a few times we almost entered leagues, Nascar 2003 league nearly had an entry from Vermin Racing, with one of our earliest liveries (Pictured left) put together in orange, black and gold, things were moving in the right direction, but the drivers at the time had other commitments which then led to entry falling through, however our times were very competitive in practice. With no drivers in the team, Tippet remained the only Vermin Racing Team driver for a few years.
Racing online reached a whole new level for Tippet, Grand Prix legends (Pictured right) was a hard game to master and an even harder one to conquer online, with fast, professional and brilliant races, the community was strong and this is where he learned most of his online race craft in between working on various other projects (see below), it was an exciting time to race online and win, each race victory was always special in GPL online. There were no championships entered by Vermin Racing, but we won so many indivdual races and recruited a young driver called Owain Shaw, as team we learned a lot. As time moved on, other sims were released and racing shifted to other games like Dolphinity Racer, F1 Career Challenge, GT Legends, Richard Burns Rally, Rfactor and console games such as Forza and F1 2010 but nothing on a serious competitive level.
2011 Tippet made the decision to return to competitive online racing, but the question was with what sim? Netkar became the obvious choice as he had a history with the sim, it had a strong racing community who were friendly and competitive. With Herman Hermansen also racing for Vermin Racing, we had a good competitive year of close and fun racing as part of the radiator springs racing league. With Herman departing at the end of the league season to race for himself. Vermin Racing helped Herman produce his car livery and remained in contact and racing against each other. Gustavo Silva joined the team to race in the C.O.G.S. series, again VRT had an excellent showing in this small championship, being competitive right until the final race of the series. Tudor Morris was a short term signing having performed well as an independent in the C.O.G.S. series,
Once C.O.G.S had finished, the plan was to return to the Radiator Springs league, racing with Vyacheslav Potapenko, who had raced for VRT in the KS2 league, along with new signing Kristian Kibokin, unfortunately due to circumstances at the start of 2012, when the team went on hiatus and missed out on racing in 2012.
2013 Saw a return to the virtual race track for the team, coming back into action quite late into the season and just missing out on the final round of the Radiator Springs championships, A decision was made to compete in the Race 2 Play Showcase Sim Series, which ran four events in one of the most challenging cars in the sim, the Formula Ford 1600. With only Tippet returning to compete in these events and managing very good results with limited practice, finishing runner up in the 4 round series final standings, against very fast, high caliber drivers. The team was going to use this momentum to build on for 2014. |
Projects History
Vermin GT-02
2002
(Racer)
This was a scratch built racing car for Racer to compete in with the Quicksilver GT car. Modeled by myself as the first scratch built car in Z-modeler. Currently trying to find the resource files to re-release the car. The car handled well and was designed to look menacing in the mirrors. Sadly the car is no longer available to download at RacerX-treme
UPDATE:
2002
(Racer)
This was a scratch built racing car for Racer to compete in with the Quicksilver GT car. Modeled by myself as the first scratch built car in Z-modeler. Currently trying to find the resource files to re-release the car. The car handled well and was designed to look menacing in the mirrors. Sadly the car is no longer available to download at RacerX-treme
UPDATE:
Thanks to the use of the WAYBACK MACHINE, I have been able to find the original page for the Vermin GT car. Sadly, although the page was archived the original download file was not. so this may be now lost to the depths of the internet unless I ever find and recover a back up file somewhere.
As you can see this was a project that was made to be raced online with dolphinity's Racer simulation, the idea was to offer the car up for privateers to use in an online championship and run the official team along side that. unfortunately at the time Racer was still under so much development that the online code was not very stable and it never ran any online championships. According to RacerX-treme, the car was downloaded 7750 times. so hopefully someone out there might still have the files. |
Speed Legends 1977
2004-2005
(Netkar)
Vermin Design Team was created and an ambitious project began using the original Netkar engine, then switch over to the in development Netkar Pro engine. The goal was to create something similar to Grand Prix legends, based on the 1976 F2 season and 1977 F1 season, The team came together really well to begin with, and the models were looking brilliant as I worked on the handling of the cars, importing the models and managed the project conversing with Stefano (Kunos) as the project progressed. The team sadly began to have some internal conflicts and due to personal issues I left the project. The team disbanded, but someone decided to use the name Vermin Design Team and released a Formula 5000 mod for rfactor which bears no relation to the original project. However 2 cars were completed by the original project team and Kunos, who was at the time was promoting Netkar Pro, asked to use the P34 model, and I released the car to him to help the Netkar Pro project. It was a shame things fell through as it was looking like it would translate well to the new engine. Some renders of the March F2 and Tyrrell were produced. I will seek them out if I can find them.
2004-2005
(Netkar)
Vermin Design Team was created and an ambitious project began using the original Netkar engine, then switch over to the in development Netkar Pro engine. The goal was to create something similar to Grand Prix legends, based on the 1976 F2 season and 1977 F1 season, The team came together really well to begin with, and the models were looking brilliant as I worked on the handling of the cars, importing the models and managed the project conversing with Stefano (Kunos) as the project progressed. The team sadly began to have some internal conflicts and due to personal issues I left the project. The team disbanded, but someone decided to use the name Vermin Design Team and released a Formula 5000 mod for rfactor which bears no relation to the original project. However 2 cars were completed by the original project team and Kunos, who was at the time was promoting Netkar Pro, asked to use the P34 model, and I released the car to him to help the Netkar Pro project. It was a shame things fell through as it was looking like it would translate well to the new engine. Some renders of the March F2 and Tyrrell were produced. I will seek them out if I can find them.