Fourteen years ago, I started a ride to satisfy a sim racing craving. After racing online and offline with games like Papyrus’ NASCAR Racing 3 all throughout high school, a busier schedule and cramped dorm rooms in college forced me to take a break. But after graduating, I felt the desire to race again, and Read more about An Anniversary Adventure[…]
My dad was the first sim racing alien I ever knew. Granted, in those early days of racing video games just after the release of the original NASCAR Racing by Papyrus, he was the only sim racer I knew. And before the advent of live streams, world championship series, or any sort of organized online Read more about The Son Also Races[…]
Thinking back on my iRacing oval career, it sometimes feels like an out-of-body experience. Or perhaps more aptly, that some other, more talented oval driver took over my body whenever it came time to turn left. That’s the best explanation I can fathom for how a sim racer who, despite growing up on the Papyrus Read more about Ten Best Drives, Part 4: Doing Left Turns Right[…]
As I was growing up, NASCAR races glowed across my family’s TV screen thirty-some weekends per year. They were standard fare on a Sunday afternoon, like mom’s chicken casserole or dad’s catnaps during the commercials. But a few times each year at critical points on the racing calendar, different races graced our TV, and because Read more about Ten Best Drives, Part 3: Special Events, Special Performances[…]
Ten years ago this summer, I joined iRacing, partially out of curiosity to see how far sim racing had come during my college years and partially to scratch the itch of being away from virtual driving for so long. My own abilities and equipment — including a half-broken set of Microsoft Sidewinder pedals — were Read more about Ten Best Drives, Part 1: Going Full Circle[…]
When you grow up just 20 minutes away from Bowman Gray Stadium — the Madhouse of short-track oval racing — and the headquarters of RJ Reynolds, the manufacturer of longtime NASCAR sponsor Winston cigarettes, with a dad who works there, it’s safe to say that you’re pretty well surrounded by asphalt stock car racing. So Read more about The Dirt on Dirt, Prelude: Off the Asphalt[…]
If you ever listen to team communications during a race, you’re likely to hear one thing no matter which driver you tune to: “this car is driving awful!” Few things on the track draw more ire from drivers than a bad-handling car, and rightfully so. A successful setup can help make the most of out Read more about Driving Styles, Part 3: Setup for Success[…]
With all due respect to the many safety improvements that have been made, the biggest change to race cars over the past 50 years is surely the addition of wings, spoilers, splitters, and other devices that harness downforce and help the cars go through corners faster. By the 1960s, as racing tires became capable of Read more about Driving Styles, Part 2: The Lowdown on Downforce[…]
Whether driving in the real world or in a simulator, racers are used to making snap decisions behind the wheel. In the car, it could be choosing when to make a pass or which strategy seems best. Out of the car, it could be changing courses in your driving career, even if it’s in the Read more about Decisions, Decisions[…]
Last month, the ITSR league — my exclusive home for oval iRacing competition over the past three years — shut its doors. Ultimately, it was the victim of struggling attendance amid a sea of similar competition and a summer season when participation always tends to sag a bit. I’ve written previously about my memorable championship battles in ITSR, Read more about A New Season, a New Direction[…]