Ever since my feet could reach the pedals, I have been sim racing. Actually, in the early years, those pedals were propped up by a cardboard box, because seven-year-old me wasn’t about to let a little vertical challenge stop me from playing those games like my dad did.
I wasn’t very good at first, and it wasn’t because of the box. For one, I thought the lap times were speeds, so I figured any speed better than 30 mph would give me the pole. I started last a lot. But that didn’t stop this kid from having fun with virtual race cars — the natural step up from Matchbox and Hot Wheels.
Over the years, as my motor skills improved, muscle memory developed, and I eventually shedded the box as my dwindly legs grew long enough to reach the floor, I got better. It wasn’t my only hobby — there was also bowling, basketball, Legos and the like — but it was the one I was best at, and the one I enjoyed the most.
On track in the NASCAR Racing 3 game — my sim of choice for many years.
That’s not to say I became an overnight driving sensation à la Jeff Gordon or Kyle Larson. In the first online league I joined — the Soar Racing league, using Papyrus’ NASCAR Racing 3 game — I scored exactly one win, and when I took the lead in that race, several other drivers sent chat messages saying “Corey, is that you in the lead?!”
It may have been an upset, but that win was one to hang my hat on. At least on that one Friday night, I’d been the best in that event — something I could never say about any stick-and-ball sport.
Eventually, the rigors of high school gave way to a full slate in college, so I put my steering wheel and pedals aside for a few years. But on a whim in 2008, I pulled them back out of the box and started driving again. In the five or six years since I’d last driven, a lot had changed. New computers meant the latest games had better graphics and better physics. Chief among those new games was iRacing, developed by many of the same folks who created several of the games I grew up playing.
iRacing bills itself as a state-of-the-art racing simulation with the most realistic cars and tracks — all laser-scanned to millimeter accuracy — and the most competitive online racing environment, where you can go wheel-to-wheel with total strangers. Early on, I got a taste of that excitement when I edged my closest opponent in a side-by-side finish with a lapped car between us. Nothing like a little flair for the dramatic in your first oval win in nearly seven years.
A close finish in my first oval win as I (#2 car, top) edged the #4 while negotiating lapped traffic (#8).
Eventually, I began racing primarily in leagues, where you run against the same group of people at the same time every week. In one road racing league, I became a weekly contender and even scored a few wins. That was a big accomplishment for someone who used to loathe turning left and right. But I’d committed myself to improve on road courses, or to borrow the cliche, I’d turned a weakness into a strength.
I also joined a primarily oval-based league: the POWER Series, which runs on Sunday evenings and has a dedicated following of a couple dozen fast and friendly drivers. In my first full season, I scored four victories and had a back-and-forth points battle with another driver all season. We entered the final race tied, but he was the better driver that night and took the championship.
The next season played out almost identically. I again won four races and found myself in a tight points battle, this time with a different driver who I’d raced against for several years. In the final race, he out-qualified and out-ran me early on. The same storyline from the previous season was unfolding, like Groundhog Day on wheels. But remember that flair for the dramatic? Here it comes again.
With two laps to go, my computerized spotter told me I had about two laps of fuel left. Not a problem for me, but maybe a problem for my competitor, as he’d made his final pit stop one lap earlier than me.
Taking the white flag, I was closing in. Entering the final corners, I was right on his bumper. Then I got lucky. He ran out of fuel exiting the final corner, just 200 yards from the finish line. I passed him, and I won the title.
Making a last-lap pass to win the POWER Series season 8 championship.
That championship brought me — pardon the pun — full circle. The kid who once lapped at 30 miles per hour was now fast enough to be champion.
So where do I go from here? Some use sim racing as a path or training tool for real-world racing, and unlike most sports games, the skills learned and honed on a racing sim can transfer directly to a real race car. It’s sometimes said that simulators are only missing are the G-forces and the sensation of throwing money out the window.
But that path is a narrow one, reserved for the best of the best drivers. I certainly don’t consider myself among that group.
While I wouldn’t scoff at the chance to get behind the wheel of a real race car, I’m driven to keep sim driving because of two things: the fun factor and the people.
For my money, it’s hard to beat running wheel to virtual wheel in simulated versions of the world’s best cars on some of its most famous circuits. It’s even better when you get to do that with like-minded friends, teammates, and people you respect. It’s enough to make this introvert enjoy interacting with other people!
That enjoyment has skyrocketed now that iRacing has added endurance racing with driver swaps. For one, those longer races fit my driving style: drive smart and be around at the finish, just like in the championship-winning race at Las Vegas. But it also puts the emphasis on the whole team rather than a single driver, and I’m extremely lucky to have a great group of teammates at KRT Motorsport. The 24-hour race we ran — and finished — together in January is one of my favorite sim racing memories, and we had a blast.
I could talk for hours about sim racing, sharing some more of my favorite memories from on and off the track. But for now, that’s my sim racing story. And as for that story and that hobby, I’m sticking to it.