I'm possibly one of the very few here who got a chance to meet him in real life and I believe you can't just consider somebody as an online friend after that. Even if he didn't have a lot to cheer about, he would put an enormous guilt on himself, roll up his sleeves and do the job.
As a simracer, I knew him from his early days in serious racing, and even when he was quite green back in the day, he just had this ongoing passion that only the guys who stay here for so long have. It was a priviledge to be working with him not once, not twice but three separate times - he was a dream guy to be gearing up for the race with - no complaints, no bullshit, just pure pace. I felt like winning races with him in the team was easy - his skills would pay the bills in the long run and it was just a matter of bringing the ride home.
He had this easiness of putting a fast lap one after another. There's no denying he is one of the guys on the LFS All-Time Great shortlist, and even if an arguement can be made that he wasn't the most successful individual, his teamplay was always impeccable. The temper he had surely cost him a few wins and I could never understand why he didn't learn to do this and that and be an absolutely fearsome monster on the track, but I guess he was always being himself, a bit infantile, but in a good way - I enjoyed LFS the most when I was a lot like him.
He showed me the way, and even in the last race he was a benchmark for me - a guy who took his own skills into the next level by hard work and didn't try to find the pace anywhere else. It's such a huge loss for me, because just when I thought I was starting to close up the pace gap between us and getting his respect, something I've always strived for, he's gone.
Always remembered, never forgotten.