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 a bit rusty at first, and with my performance tracked by precise indicators of skill and safety, I was nervous every time I registered for a session to compete against other people.
Over the years, my driving has improved, although those nerves haven’t completely gone away. That’s part of the addiction of iRacing, though. Compared to other games, there’s no reset button when races don’t go your way, and the feeling of accomplishment is all the more satisfying when they do.
As I approach my ten-year iRacing anniversary on August 9, I’ll count down ten of my best drives here on The Driver Diary. It was a tough list to curate, not because I’m a particularly prolific driver, but because I’ve driven a lot — more than 700 official races plus countless other league events — spread out among a variety of cars, series, and disciplines.
This top ten represents a sample of all of those, from my lowly beginnings in the rookie series to the top of the heap in endurance racing.
The countdown begins with the former — one of my first iRacing wins that remains one of my closest ever margins of victory.
10. Rookie Legends at South Boston — May 19, 2010
It wasn’t my first win on iRacing — that came in August 2009 driving the Pontiac Solstice at Laguna Seca — but it was the race that convinced me iRacing was worth a second chance.
My first entrée into iRacing in the summer of 2009 had been eye-opening. It was a big change from the last titles I had driven, such as Sports Car GT and F1 Challenge 99-02. But running mainly on the road racing side, it hadn’t managed to hold my interest for more than a month or two.
The following spring, I decided to give it another shot, this time on the ovals, which is where I’d done most of the online competition in my sim racing past.
At the time, the rookie car was the Legends Coupe — a frankencar with a to-scale 1934 Ford body and a motorcycle engine. Tame enough to avoid spinning from small mistakes but powerful enough to slide through the corners with well (or poorly) timed throttle application, it was an ideal car for beginners, or in my case, sim racing returnees who never quite got the hang of high-level oval cars in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, iRacing’s predecessor in lineage and physics.
The rookie Legends series at the time rotated between just two tracks, so after getting my feet wet with a couple of races at Lanier, I buckled down for a week of 40-lappers at South Boston.
My first race ended in a crash while the second was my closest brush with oval victory up to that point. After starting second and leading 14 laps early on, I faded late in the race and finished second, five seconds behind the winner.
The next day, I was back at it for more races, but despite two top-fives, I was no closer to winning. It took a random dinnertime race on a Wednesday to finally break through.
It began with another second-place start, but instead of charging to the lead right away, I bided my time and moved into the top spot on lap 16.
From there, it certainly wasn’t easy. As the laps wound down, I hit traffic and also faced increasing pressure from behind. It was enough to force me into classic rookie mistakes, missing my marks and opening up the bottom lane for my opponent.
On the final lap, we raced side-by-side as my car four-wheel drifted through turn 2. I was pushing the little Legends car as hard as I could and barely hanging on.
I had a nose ahead down the backstretch but bigger problems out my window. A lapped car was just ahead of us, and we were set to catch him out of the final corners.
In turn 3, I held the middle groove and gave my opponent room — but not much — on the bottom. Sure enough, we caught the lapped car off of turn 4, but split him on either side to take the checkered flag.
Crossing the line three-wide, I was a tenth of a second ahead of second place. I had earned my first iRacing oval win, and with such close, clean, and intense competition, there was no doubt I’d be back for more.
Although wins were tougher to come by on the oval side as I moved into higher splits, few could have ever beat the excitement of that first victory in a short-track photo finish.
9. Sprint Car at Lucas Oil Raceway Park — February 28, 2017
After dabbling with the Legends, late models, and trucks, I largely put my oval career on hiatus as I explored more of iRacing’s depth of road content. When I returned to making mostly left turns, I had a successful stint of five seasons and two championships in the Power Series. However, even those results left me wanting more.
At least until overpowered dirt-racing rocketships like the midget and super late model arrived, the final frontier of oval racing always seemed to be the asphalt sprint car.
With heaps of horsepower and a dearth of downforce, it seemed like a great match for my own driving style, honed in bulky stock and GT cars that rely more on throttle control than aerodynamics. I’d just never given it a fair shake.
That opportunity finally arose in the fall of 2016. During week 13, iRacing held an unofficial sprint car series at Lucas Oil Raceway Park, which helped me get acclimated to the car, albeit in the same way one gets acclimated to the heat in a desert.
My first few races were rough, as this car was everything the Legends car wasn’t. It easily spun with overly ambitious throttle application, or sometimes seemingly if you looked at the gas pedal wrong.
By the end of that week, I was consistently finishing races and I felt competent enough in the sprint car to avoid crashing. I was ready, if hesitant, for my first season of official competition.
My expectations weren’t particularly high since I’d be driving against people far more experienced in the car with better setups and higher iRatings than me. And initially, I was satisfied to be solidly mid-pack — sixth place in my first two races, then a top five in week four of the season.
As I became more familiar with the car, the setups, and the surprisingly close racing in the Sprint Car Cup series, I steadily began reeling off top-five finishes. To shorten my learning curve, I also ran the car in the private JSRL league, and even managed to earn a couple of victories there.
However, I was still searching for my first official-series win, and entering the final week of my first — and only, as it turned out — season driving the sprint car, time was running out.
As luck had it, that week brought a return to Lucas Oil Raceway Park, so it would serve as a measuring stick for how far I had come as a sprint car driver.
A second-place qualifying run was a solid start, but the early laps of the race brought setbacks as I slipped to third and then fourth behind two of the fastest drivers in the series.
As the 50-lap race passed its halfway point, my comeback drive began. I re-took third place in a tight wheel-banging battle that finished with me making a difficult inside pass on a track where the top groove is typically preferred.
Although the two leaders were several seconds up the road by then, a well-timed caution at lap 28 bunched the field back up and gave me another shot.
When the green flag waved again, the racing was close among the top four, but I held my position and waited for a chance to move forward.
With nine laps to go, that opportunity emerged. The second-place driver tried an inside pass for the lead, but I managed to fill the gap to his outside and take the spot.
The following lap, the leader inexplicably changed his line to the middle groove, opening the top lane for me to get alongside him.
After a side-by-side battle for a lap, he got loose entering turn 1 and I sped by on his outside to take the lead.
While the second-place battle raged behind me, I held on to win by a second. It wasn’t as close of a finish as my first on an oval, but the fight to get there was every bit as challenging, if not moreso in the most difficult asphalt oval car to drive on the iRacing service.
I can’t quite say I ever mastered the sprint car — I’m not sure anyone can make that bold claim — but I’m still amazed by how quickly I got up to speed and, eventually, to victory lane.
From unintentionally spinning on the frontstretch at Lucas Oil Raceway Park to celebrating a win there in the course of just three months, my sprint car career — while brief — was a story of constant improvement and some of the most fun races I’ve ever been a part of.
Thinking back ten years, those moments alone made me glad I stuck with iRacing. Apparently all it took to get me hooked was my first taste of close competition and the thrill of victory.