My sabbatical was borne mostly out of real-life relief, with Covid restrictions lifted and a long-awaited return to quasi-normalcy after a year of lockdown. This spring and summer, I attended in-person hockey games, vacationed with family at the beach, and generally enjoyed time away from my three monitors that double (triple?) as a windshield.

But I’d be lying if I said my iRacing break also wasn’t partially fueled by frustration. In my most recent endurance races, I crashed out of the Daytona 24h race all by myself, had a shorter IMSA race at Daytona end after one-too-many incidents at the hands of LMP2 drivers, and never even got in our car at the Sebring 12h since that time, my teammate Karl absorbed the KO from an over-eager LMP2 in the race’s first hour.

Those experiences had made me question my own abilities, and those of other drivers on the service. But a long enough time away brought a craving to drive once again, and after testing the latest round of updates that improved the handling and responsiveness of the GT cars, it was time to get back behind the wheel.

The series was an inauspicious one: IMSA, complete with those LMP2 torpedoes, not to mention the potential for off-pace GTE drivers who blend in with the GT3 field about as well as water and motor oil.

The track was an unusual one: the Homestead-Miami Speedway roval, combining the straightaways and north turn of the oval with a start-stop infield road course, not too dissimilar to Daytona.

And my car of choice was an unexpected one: the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO, built on the same chassis as the Audi R8, for which I’ve never been able to get a grip. But the Lambo has its own character, and the recent updates made it feel like a brand new car.

In the sundown qualifying session, my second-place starting spot came as a relief, both for being that far up the field and for not being first and forced to pace our GT3 class to the green flag, unpracticed as I am at race starts and on a new track, no less.

The first lap brought the sort of calamity I expected from this series, with spun-out Porsches littering the sides of the track through the infield section as if they were searching for curbside parking spots in nearby Miami Beach.

As GT3 leaders, we carved through the carnage as best as we could, and I managed to stay within drafting range of the polesitting BMW, who seemed to have the pace to pull away if not for the traffic we continued to hit.

On lap 7, though, that traffic hit me. A GTE who was one of the first-lap castaways was moving back through the field, and in the final infield corner, he braked inexplicably late, skidded sideways from a second behind me, and clobbered the back of my car with his Big Boi BMW passenger-side door.

After waiting for a half-dozen cars to drive past our accident scene, I managed to get going again, and to my surprise, the car felt mostly undamaged — something a passing LMP2 confirmed for me a few laps later.

But in fifth place and a dozen seconds behind the leader, my shot at the win was surely over. Instead, I focused on clawing back as many spots as possible, which was made easier when a few GT3s spun off course at the tricky turn two, and seemingly capped off by a pass on the banking to take second place on lap 18.

The leader remained about 12 seconds ahead before the pit stop, so while I could match his pace, I wasn’t catching up. Just finishing the race cleanly would feel like a success, I thought, and I’d have to settle for dreams of battling for the win and what could have been.

After the pit stops were completed, though, I got an unexpected call from my robo-spotter: You are the leader! I didn’t think much of it since I was among the last GT3s to pit, so I assumed the lineup just hadn’t cycled through yet.

Besides, I had a battle on my hands, and it wasn’t the sort I’d hoped for entering the race. A GTE backmarker who was running GT3 lap times was right behind me, and frustratingly, he was trying every sort of ill-advised move to get around me.

There were divebombs under braking, for which I simply drove a wider line to stay ahead.

There was a scary side-by-side run into the high-speed first turn — a left-hand flick off the oval that’s hardly a passing zone — with an LMP2 darting between us.

And there was his final attempt: a late-braking, too-deep lunge into the same hairpin where I was clobbered earlier in the race. This time, though, I gave him room up the inside, watched him predictably spin at the apex, and gave a sarcastic “nice move!” on the radio as I drove past.

At that point, I finally had time to process the reality of the race. I truly was first in class, and the polesitter and erstwhile leader was now nine seconds behind. After the race, he told me that a black flag for an unsafe pit exit forced him to pit a second time, and that one mistake proved much costlier than my torments in traffic.

The final laps were thankfully cleaner for me, with only occasional passing LMP2s around me. In my mirrors, I could see a battle between off-pace GTEs who were now mixing in with the second- and third-place GT3s. I feel your pain, I thought, but after my own experiences earlier in the race, my sympathies ended there.

After 45 minutes, 36 laps, two GTEs spinning in my vicinity at the same corner, and one unfortunate penalty for my closest opponent, my race for redemption was completed with a victory.

It’s not a result I would have expected in my first race since returning, and certainly not one I could repeat in a stronger field. But as my first — and best — race since March, I can only hope that this comeback performance is a sign of things to come.

For the fall, a new road beckoned, but unlike the official series open to anyone with a license, this one was invite-only. And that invitation had to be earned.

Now entering its fourth season, the NEO endurance series has established itself as iRacing’s premier endurance league. I’ve been fortunate enough to compete in all three seasons so far — in the first two as a full-time driver and in last season’s 24-hour race at Le Mans — and I’ve seen the skill and effort required to be competitive.

This season promises to require even more of both.  With only two classes, one of which will feature iRacing’s still-shiny new GTE cars, the talent pool will be deeper than ever and the interest level is greater than ever.

Fortunately, my SRN Motorsports team has prepared to meet that challenge.  I was paired with three of the fastest and most competitive teammates I’ve ever raced with, and headed into last weekend’s cutthroat pre-qualifying session at Silverstone, we knew we’d need all the speed we could muster in order to make the field.

Going fast at Silverstone often meant using every available inch of the road.

A couple of my teammates began practicing more than a month ago while I was still hopping from one car to another on my road trip.  Once that adventure ended, I began my own practice in our car of choice, the Ford GT.

I raced that car in week 5 of my Summer Road Trip, but I had driven seven other cars since then.  Surely getting back up to speed would take time, right?

Surprisingly not.  After my first 25 laps or so of practice, I was within a half-second of my teammates’ best laps.  Going into my road trip, I expected that changing cars each week might be a hindrance, but instead, it proved helpful.  Each week, it seemed easier to adapt to different cars, as if switching so often made me forget any stubborn muscle memory that had been slowing me down.

Although it was still tough to kick a few old habits, like using my braking points from the Skip Barber car around Silverstone, comfort came easily in the Ford, aided by a quick, stable setup from my teammates.

In our practices together, our lap times were typically separated by just two or three tenths of a second.  I was still the slowest on the team, though, so when the pre-qualifying session arrived, I told my teammates that I probably shouldn’t drive unless we were really desperate.

As my three teammates — Jason Gerard, Steven McGarvey, and Karl Modig — took turns in the car, I played the role of statistician, calculating the average lap times for other teams to give us an idea of where we stood.

Karl shares the road with a prototype in the stadium section.

But just as I was tallying up the laps in Karl’s run, which was our team’s third consecutive clean ten-lap run of the day, I got the call I didn’t expect.

“Want to see if you can make it a clean sweep, Corey?” Jason asked.

With that, I put my laptop aside and my driving gloves on.  After all, I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to get in the car.

However, I certainly didn’t expect to do well.  I was slower than my teammates to begin with, and in addition, I was getting on track when conditions were arguably the worst — the track had heated up and was still rubbering in, making it slick and tough to drive.

In the past, my lack of adaptability to such conditions has been one of my greatest flaws.  During this summer’s 24 Hours of Spa, for instance, it took hours of frustration in practice and several stints in the race to get used to the changing track conditions.

But that experience seemed to pay off as I headed on track at Silverstone.  While I overdrove some corners in my first few laps, I eventually got into a decent rhythm running lap times solidly in the mid-1:45s.

Navigating the rubbering-in esses at Silverstone.

After seven laps, I wasn’t on pace to beat any of our team’s previous runs, so my teammates called me in — a move I encouraged them to make when I started my run.

My average lap time of a 1:45.580 was about two tenths off our best run of the day.  Of course, my times would’ve likely slipped a bit in the final three laps, but my average likely would have remained good enough to make the grid.

It’s a feat few teams accomplished.  Out of 30 GTE teams that made a pre-qualifying attempt, only 13 received the golden ticket into the new NEO season.  Our SRN team was solidly among those, placing fifth in the final results thanks to Steve and Karl’s quick runs.

With that, we’ve checked one goal off the list and made the field.  That opens up a big opportunity — and presents a big challenge — for me as a driver.  Surrounded by fast teammates and competitors, I refuse to be a liability to have in the car.

That means I will need to approach this season different than any other.  Instead of moonlighting in different cars and splitting my time between series as I have in the past three endurance seasons, I will be driving the same car for months, needing to thoroughly learn its tendencies while finding speed, consistency, and adaptability.

Cresting the hill exiting the esses at Road Atlanta.

I got my first test of that earlier this week in the official IMSA series, where I drove the Ford in a 75-minute race at Road Atlanta.  Although it wasn’t the strongest GTE field — certainly not as competitive as the NEO grid will be — it was still a chance to try out the Ford in race conditions.

I’d like to think that I largely passed that test.  I qualified more than a second faster than the next car, and in the race, I found consistency even on older tires en route to a class victory.

If I can perform like that all season, I hope it will help me take a big step as a driver.  When others see me in official servers, I want their reaction to be “wow, he’s a NEO driver!” instead of “wait, he’s a NEO driver?!”

It’s a big ask, but armed with lessons learned from my Summer Road Trip and a new focus for this season, I think I’m prepared.

The road is calling, and I’m ready to answer.

When I first joined iRacing, there was just one GT car in the service: the GT1 Corvette C6R.  It took several years for the Ford GT2 to be released, and a few more years until GT3s slowly started to find their way into the sim en masse.

You could blame it on the fast-moving landscape of global sports car racing and regulations.  Or the cost and time to license, scan, and develop cars and their increasingly complex technologies in a virtual environment.  Or even the potential reluctance of manufacturers to hand over the details about their multi-million dollar investments to game companies.

In any case, many of the sports cars in iRacing and other sims have become outdated, and several multi-class iRacing series feature lineups that either raced together more than five years ago or never competed on-track with one another in the real world.

A Ferrari GTE and Mercedes GT3 — one combo that can be found on track together in the real world.

One series affected by this problem has been the officially sanctioned IMSA Sportscar Championship.  Its prototype has hardly ever matched the most current version, the GT Le Mans class has either been represented by its Ford GT ancestor or nothing at all, and a mix of GT3s and the Ruf C-Spec or Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars have represented some amalgam of the past and present GT Daytona class.

Earlier this summer, though, one of those problems was solved.  In a somewhat unanticipated move given the usual rate of development, iRacing released both the modern Ferrari 488 and Ford GT cars, which compete globally in the GTE class and in IMSA’s GT Le Mans class.

With both of IMSA’s GT classes represented by current cars and the Daytona Prototype just one year out of date, the series has suddenly become one of the most up-to-date on iRacing’s road racing ladder.

The Shakedown

When the new cars were released, I wasn’t sure what to expect from them.  My only reference for how a GTE car handled was from their predecessor, the GT2 Ford GT.  I hated the way it drove: often plowing like a bulldozer, bouncing over bumps and kerbs, and generally tough to set up and drive.  Surely the new cars wouldn’t be that bad, right?

Indeed they were not.  In fact, it’s as if they took those weaknesses and made them strengths.  In my first test drive, I noticed how responsive both cars were.  They handled well, almost unlike GT cars at all.  In fact, the only giveaway that they weren’t prototypes was the weight I felt in the steering wheel.

Like the old Ford GT, these cars have no anti-lock brakes.  However, they do have traction control, which makes it easier to control their fast acceleration on corner exit.

So far, I have found the Ferrari a bit easier and more intuitive to drive because it tends to behave more like a typical GT car.  It does have plenty of the downforce that defines modern GTEs, but it punishes overdriving like any other GT.

Leading a pack of Ferraris through the chicane.

The Ford, on the other hand, has dodged comparisons — or accusations, perhaps — of being a prototype in GT clothing, and after driving the virtual version of it, I can see why.  The lower seating position gives it a prototype feel, and it seems to excel with faster corners and maintaining momentum.

The differences are also noticeable in the garage.  When you’re changing ride heights, you’ll adjust the traditional spring perch offset on the Ferrari while the Ford uses torsion bars — something quite different for a GT car but not uncommon on a prototype or open-wheeler.

Those differences aside, both cars seemed to respond well to my setup adjustments, and for cars like this, you’ll definitely want to know your way around a setup if you’re planning to race them.  As good as professionally made setups are, differences in driving styles and personal preferences require some tweaks.

The changing weather and track conditions from race to race also make it important to correctly adjust the setup, and these cars carry consequences for getting it wrong — more on that a bit later.

Ford chases Ferrari through the Dunlop Kehre.

GTE Cup?

Prior to this season, IMSA was relatively popular for a B-class series, with multiple official timeslots per day and participation distributed well among all three classes.

The two new GTE cars have sparked huge interest in the series, with nearly every road racer worth his salt coming in to try them out.  Almost every time slot so far this season has gone official, so at least until the newness wears off, finding a race shouldn’t be a problem.

If you’re looking for a good multi-class race, though, this series may not be the place to find it.  The popularity of the new cars has created a noticeable imbalance in participation.  Races tend to be dominated by GTEs, often with just a handful of prototypes or GT3s in the top split and few to none of those classes in lower splits.

In addition, most weeks use 45-minute race lengths, which isn’t enough time to see many of the other class of cars given their limited pace differences —  in my races at the Nurburgring last week, the three class polesitters were never separated by more than 8 seconds.

Those speed similarities can create some uncomfortable overlap between the slow drivers of one class and the fast ones of another.  Slow Daytona Prototype drivers seem particularly vulnerable to this, and in a couple of my races, the GTE field caught those DPs, who generally yielded the position without much of a fight.

There is plenty of speed disparity among the GTE drivers as well, which tells me that these cars are easy to drive — at least compared to the likes of the V8 Supercar — but tough to drive fast.  Indeed, turning laps in these cars is relatively effortless, but finding tenths and seconds is a much greater challenge.

A lone prototype leads a field of GTEs through turn 1.

Forza Ferrari

I began the week in the Ferrari, largely because it was the car I was the most comfortable driving and the one I knew best after running a couple stints in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, albeit at a safe and somewhat slow pace.

In my first race of the week on Tuesday evening, I narrowly won the pole but didn’t even hold the lead through turn 1 on the first lap.  The second-place starter passed me at the start, and although I stayed close to him for the first eight laps or so, after that, he pulled away as if he found a turbo boost button in the car.

Losing the lead in the first corner of my first race.

Frustratingly, I was running consistent lap times just two tenths off my best lap of the race.  That simply meant that my opponent was equally as consistent but a tick quicker than me.

By the middle of the race, I was in no-man’s land, with growing gaps to the leader ahead and the rest of the GTE field behind.  From there, I brought the car home incident-free for the first time all season.  While I lost a few seconds in the closing laps waiting patiently behind a pair of battling GT3s, I was still solidly in second place at the finish.

IMSA Sportscar Championship - Race 1

Later that night, I did another race that got off to a similar start.  After winning the pole, I dropped two spots before the first turn.  This time, though, I managed to hang with the leaders — one Ford and one Ferrari — and found myself in the middle of an exciting three-car race.

With five laps to go, I was still in the hunt.  Although the leader pulled away during the pit stops, I suspected he hadn’t taken enough fuel.  And I was reeling in the second-place car, with whom I’d had some contact earlier in the race after he chopped across my nose entering the tight first turn.

Unfortunately, I never got to see how that potential battle for the win might end.  My electricity flickered off for the first time ever while racing, dooming me to a DNF.  Ironically, I’ve raced in ice storms and thunderstorms without a problem, but I was done in by an apparently random flicker on a clear night in July.

IMSA Sportscar Championship - Race 2

One More Try

Although I had planned to run just two races in the Ferrari before moving on to the Ford, I couldn’t stop after such an unsatisfying ending.  So the following night, I hopped in the Ferrari again and found a strong field, including the runaway winner from my first race.

This time, I qualified in 3rd and managed to hold that position early on.  Otherwise, the early laps had a similar feel; the leaders slowly pulled away while I ran consistent lap times a few tenths off of my best lap.

I couldn’t cruise home without a fight, though.  The driver that qualified just behind me on the grid was shuffled back at the start but managed to reclaim those lost positions and catch me by the pit stops.

Battling for third place after the pit stops.

Exiting the pits, I overdrove turn 1 and let him get alongside me.  Three turns later, he was ahead and pulling away.  Given his pace, I expected he would catch me eventually, but I hoped I could hold him off for a bit longer.

However, warmer weather in this race meant that for the first time all week, I was noticing the effects of tire wear.  I’m not sure whether my opponent had less wear or was just quicker, but either way, there was no keeping up once get got past me.

I wound up in fourth place with a slightly lower points haul than in my first race but modest iRating and safety rating gains to show for my efforts.

IMSA Sportscar Championship - Race 3

Spin City

In its short tenure on iRacing, the new Ford may have gained something of a bad reputation, perhaps as a subconscious homage to its widely maligned predecessor.

Other drivers noticed that the new Ford is apparently more easily damaged from kerb strikes and contact, even despite recent patches from iRacing to lessen that likelihood.  Its lack of top-end speed compared to the Ferrari also made it the less-popular choice for its debut race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Since then, for drivers like me who drove the Ferrari at Le Mans, it’s been easier to stick with that car instead of switching to a different one.  But in the interest of a fair comparison, I couldn’t end my week without stepping into the UFO-like cockpit of the Ford GT for a race.

Part of the GTE field heads through the Ford Kurve on lap 1.

If I was going to find success in that car, I’d have to do it in the strongest field I saw all week.  The talent level showed, as I qualified just seventh on the grid.  Worse still for a Ford driver, the race weather was cool and overcast, which gave the track extra grip that I expected would help the Ferraris close the speed gap in high-speed corners.

I figured that the grippy weather would give the cars a bit of extra oversteer, so I removed some rake in an attempt to account for the track conditions.  Early in the race, it was apparent that other drivers didn’t make that adjustment — or didn’t make enough of one.

In the opening laps, several cars around me spun or ran off-track.  The quick left-right Ford Kurve complex seemed to be calamity corner, and on lap 6, it even caught me off-guard.  While watching the Ferrari behind me fill my mirrors, my car suddenly slid sideways through that corner.

Spinning in the Ford Kurve while the Ferrari behind avoids me.

Thankfully, the cars behind avoided me and I got onto the grass and going again without a problem.  However, it highlighted the tricky nature of a grippy track.  In the laps that followed, I felt the car nearly get out from under me again several times, and a few cars ahead of me had incidents of their own.

After dropping as low as 11th place, I began to climb back through the Ferrari-dominated field.  That clued me into one disadvantage of the Ford: Its comparative lack of top speed makes passing difficult, and largely confined to braking zones and corners.

I did make a few solid passes in these areas, but I gained more positions simply due to the mistakes around me.  I also survived a close call when two Ferraris ahead of me made contact and one nearly spun into the side of my car.

After the pit stops, I found myself in sixth place and on the bumper of a Ferrari ahead of me that had been held up while lapping a GT3 car.  In the closing laps, his pace was slightly quicker and he held me off to earn a top-five while I finished in sixth.

Passing a Ferrari exiting turn 1 while another Ferrari is spun to the inside.

IMSA Sportscar Championship - Race 4

Take Your Pick

So how do the Ferrari and Ford compare?

Overall, the balance of performance between the cars seems quite good around an intermediate — i.e., not Le Mans — circuit.  From my initial testing laps through this week’s practices and races, my pace in both cars was similar, and I found myself competitive with drivers around my iRating who were running the opposite car.

Putting aside any lingering issues with the Ford being more easily damaged, I’d say the decision can and should come down to personal preference.

As a traditional GT driver, the Ferrari suites my driving style better and reacts the way I would expect.  In the Ford, I struggled a bit to get comfortable, particularly with braking for corners and accelerating off of them.

That’s not the case for everyone, though.  I suspect that other drivers, particularly those accustomed to driving open-wheelers and prototypes, will feel more at home in the Ford.

A group of GTEs approaches GT3 traffic in the chicane.

Differences between the cars aside, their addition is an obvious win for sports car racers and the IMSA series.  Although it’s largely a GTE Cup at the moment, over time, participation will surely fall back into balance.

After all, GT3s are popular and have withstood the test of time, so they don’t seem to be in danger of the participation dropoff that sometimes accompanies the slowest car class.  And while the DP is outdated, if and when it is replaced by a modern prototype, that class will be rejuvenated.

Even if that happens, though, they may not match the rabid popularity that the GTEs are seeing at the moment.  They’re accessible to many drivers, extremely fun to race, and a compelling virtual version of an historical real-world manufacturer rivalry.

That makes them poised to remain the anchor class in IMSA, at least until the real-world series and car makers inevitably decide to change things up once again.