VANTHOOR: Larry in Lockdown

This is a bit of a different column than the last one. Everything is pretty much on hold and everyone is sitting at home. It’s a very unusual situation for everybody.

We were in America, two weeks before Sebring, because like I said in my previous column, we wanted to spend more time in Florida. Then the race got postponed and travel restrictions were being announced. It was quite stressful. We didn’t know what to do. We decided to stay in Florida.

Eventually we decided to come back to Germany. No one knows how long this situation is going to last, so we figured it’s better to be at home. I think we caught the last flight back.

It sucks that there’s no racing, everything is getting pushed to the fall and the calendar is really messed up. On the other hand, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with the family and do things we haven’t had time for.

I’ve always been the kind of person that if it’s something I can’t control, I’m not going to spend any energy on it.

My wife and I decided to take on a project. We bought a piece of land in Florida, near Tampa. We’re going to build a place to stay out of shipping containers.

It’s a trendy thing to do at the moment. It’s exciting, but it’s a lot of work, because it’s all an unknown to us. That’s another positive of having all this extra time on our hands; we can work on that.

I’m able to use my simulator now that I have a new computer. I have a great setup, but it’s been frustrating so far because I’m too slow and I don’t like to be slow. Driving a simulator requires something much different from a race car in real life, especially if you’re pushing the car to the edge.

I realized that I missed competition in general. Even when I’m not at the race track and I’m biking with my friends, I still want to beat them and when I do I get satisfaction out of that. But now there’s no racing and I have to bike alone.

Then there’s the simulator, that provides competition, but I’m too slow, so I get the opposite of satisfaction. Sometimes I find myself in a bad mood, because I want to do something; not just anything, but something competitive against somebody.

I’ve been in contact with Earl every day. At first he sounded a bit panicked, but now we’re back to making jokes.

It will be an interesting end of the season, with everyone trying to fit all the races into three months. I’m trying to enjoy the time at home now, because there won’t be much time at home, at the end of the year.

Stay safe. Stay healthy.