Sorry for the lack of posting..... not that anyone is really reading this lol
I got to B Class, and I am now realizing how little of importance safety rating is. Don't get me wrong, it is important, but after a while, you start learning how to just simply play it safe. The iRating is the most important number, and right before and after getting to B class, I was slumping immensly on my irating, down to lower 700's from a high of 1600 . I think you start at 1500 in D class, so yeah.
Once your irating is down, you get put in races with others who are in the lower levels as well, and really, that is where the shit is. The lower splits are full of the guys who can't exit turns without turning, who make contact with other drivers on the regular , and have a incident per race number of at least 6. The super pros have a incident per race around or less than one. My biggest issue is running into others . I can't count on all of my fingers and toes how many times someone has cut me off in the turn to only lift suddenly ( cause they came in after passing outside ) and I slam into the back of them. That usually gives me 4x and then they spin and hit the wall giving me another 2x or 4x .
I think we are in week four of season 2, and I am learning to recognize my limits. When I first got to D class, I was so excited to race K&N that I think I ran the Richmond race some dozen times in the first two days. I was in way over my head, and I remember finishing near last some five or more laps down. I didn't know what I was doing.
I have only ran one NiS race, and I think I spun on the start and blew my engine.
I have learned that open races are the hardest, not just in length, but in survival . Racing can be a serious bitch and half. Progress can be measure though, and I am just now starting to get a grip again. Learning to stay where you can win, and only racing when you can compete is key. It is better to withdraw before the race actually begins if your practice time isn't top ten ( or close to ). Usually in open practice you can more easily see this ( though its a bit tougher to quit before it starts ).
In the rookies, it is easier to work soley on safety rating, but it takes a quite deal of patience to be safe and fast. I mean, that is the name of the game. Aggressively Cautious.
My irating is back above 1000 , and I intend to be more cautious about where I race and only do so if I can compete with my split. I am not that talented when it comes to this, but I can be aware of my competitiveness and race only when I can be competitive. This doesn't mean I am going to get into a race where I have no chance. It has happened before, it will happen again.
I have started making some videos on my replays. You can see them here.
This week the NASCAR series are at Texas. I have started a regimen of running a twenty to fourty lap time trial and then a race. I have ran two races in the trucks, and finished 2nd and today 3rd. Only 4x on the first race ( someone cut me in the middle of the turn and had to lift so I ended up hitting em ). This is progress.
At the end of last week, I finished two Xfinity races, finishing 4th and then 5th. Doing much better
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNYrjIpqvdWwZHVuZtO9O7A
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
Ending Week 12 on a low note
I am easily maintaining my license promotion, but I have lost 700 in irating. I feel competitive , and every race I am still learning, so there is growth. But I have been bumped out so many times, I am starting to get a bit freaked out.
It should be easily detectable when someone is being to aggressive , but honestly, at hundred and fifty-ish mile an hour, I can barely make out which direction someone is going , much less, how they are driving.
Its kind of hilarious, because in the rookie class, you have jack squat to think about, and in C class, the shit just got real. All of a sudden, pit strategy, aggressiveness , tire and gas conservation, and so on and so forth, become all of your thought process. Ultimately, all of these choices are you to make, and it takes quite a bit of forethought to even conceive what might be logical, much less, what actually is.
Racing is quite easy, racing with others,.... well.... you never know what the next jackass is going to do. And don't get me wrong, I have made a bunch of mistakes too, mainly, passing jackasses . But I am not perfect, but all of my faults have included no one else ( minus the few times I have checked up and got rear ended ) .
At least this is my hope. I say this because since I started the trucks series, I have had only one top ten and one top five, of 18 starts. what in the holy hell is going on here?
This is where I want to race, and this must just be the learning curve. I will get a 6000 iRating , this is the goal
It should be easily detectable when someone is being to aggressive , but honestly, at hundred and fifty-ish mile an hour, I can barely make out which direction someone is going , much less, how they are driving.
Its kind of hilarious, because in the rookie class, you have jack squat to think about, and in C class, the shit just got real. All of a sudden, pit strategy, aggressiveness , tire and gas conservation, and so on and so forth, become all of your thought process. Ultimately, all of these choices are you to make, and it takes quite a bit of forethought to even conceive what might be logical, much less, what actually is.
Racing is quite easy, racing with others,.... well.... you never know what the next jackass is going to do. And don't get me wrong, I have made a bunch of mistakes too, mainly, passing jackasses . But I am not perfect, but all of my faults have included no one else ( minus the few times I have checked up and got rear ended ) .
At least this is my hope. I say this because since I started the trucks series, I have had only one top ten and one top five, of 18 starts. what in the holy hell is going on here?
This is where I want to race, and this must just be the learning curve. I will get a 6000 iRating , this is the goal
Friday, February 14, 2020
Made it to C Class!
It's hard to express my feelings about this, but I am happy. More importantly, I am finding consistency , and this promotion is part of that. I followed up this promotion with a perfect rookie class race with ZERO incidents, which is becoming the norm for me. I qualified 7th and finished 4th, and there was plenty of BS to look out for. In the last ten laps, a lapped car exited pit road and got right in front of the 4th place car, about a half second in front of me. He straight up got taken out. I got on the radio and told him to take 4th place back since sixth place was a half lap away. I don't like taking places on bs like that. He took 4th place and we went around again, only to come back up on that same car, and for whatever reason, 4th place decided to start beating up on this same lap car. Well, he took em both out and I wasn't going to give him the place back after that, but we were on the last lap. Regardless, I avoided those wrecks while keeping pace, and that is just the new norm.
I have somehow adopted some sort of believe system of Carma , and I am fearful of doing anything remotely shady, as I am afraid it will happen to me. I think it is a good policy. It is more important to be consistent than to win races , except for the last lap and for the win.... anything goes in that event.
This time, for class promotion, I am only going to run time trials in the next class, and slowly put myself into street stock C class series and K&N to start my run at the big time. When I was promoted to D class, I dived into K&N thinking that is where I was going to stay, and was quickly humbled to realize I still wasn't ready for that. I still don't think I am ready, but I do need to start easing out of it and get into those cars more often. They don't differ to much except they do have way more speed and horsepower , and therefor are a lot more sensitive to damage. At least, that is my experience so far, and there is very little of that.
Anyways, time to keep chugging in the Advanced Legends series and see if I can't win a championship there.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Season 1, 2020, week 9, Back at Lakeland
Some great news! My Irating is back above 1300 and my safety rating is back above 3, and I am feeling more confident than ever. Not only has my crash avoidance gotten better, my heart rate is staying down and I am getting even better moving through traffic. At the start of this season, I thought I was going to race K&N the whole time, and I was quickly humbled when I realized I could not get top twenty much less keep up with the pace. So I went back to Legends, and I readjusted my attitude , and it was at that moment I realized the true meaning of competition. I mean, we all know the adage "Get back up" , but nothing is more important than that when you are 26th in points and the only guy in the top fifty in points without a win. I know that means very little right now, because every racer starts somewhere. It is that practice that makes you perfect, another well known adage, that actually stands true in anything.
The first couple of months, getting out of rookie, I would purposly start in the back and just keep my distance, but after getting to D class, I knew I had to start practicing not hitting others when in restarts and deep in traffic. You have to hit someone a few times before you learn where the 'front' of the car is, and that is Sim specific, obviously , in reality, you would know at all times. Inside of the sim, its a bit of a downside not being able to fully understand the depth in front of you, as well as behind of you. So clearly, now , I can see it. More importantly, I have learned that if you come up on someone who is clearly crazy, lapped or on the lead, just stay behind. Really, there is no point risking being on the lead lap for some nut ball going up and down the track like a freak. Usually they work themselves out of the race, sometimes someone else does it for you, but often, you just have to sit tight and be happy with where you are. I am still in the rookie division and I am still in a rookie series, so keeping that in mind, we take our time.
I somehow missed three weeks on the street stock series, so I will probably never get back on pace with that series in championship points, but I have been making great strides in safety and irating in those races just playing it safe, and getting plenty of traffic practice starting mid pack. The C class street stock has full cautions, larger fields, and different tracks every week, and there is where I plan on being most of my time after I get to that license.
I am going to try and make a video soon to highlight my adventures in rookie division soon. Hopefully making a highlight reel every couple of weeks. Iduno, it seems to take me forever to make videos.
The first couple of months, getting out of rookie, I would purposly start in the back and just keep my distance, but after getting to D class, I knew I had to start practicing not hitting others when in restarts and deep in traffic. You have to hit someone a few times before you learn where the 'front' of the car is, and that is Sim specific, obviously , in reality, you would know at all times. Inside of the sim, its a bit of a downside not being able to fully understand the depth in front of you, as well as behind of you. So clearly, now , I can see it. More importantly, I have learned that if you come up on someone who is clearly crazy, lapped or on the lead, just stay behind. Really, there is no point risking being on the lead lap for some nut ball going up and down the track like a freak. Usually they work themselves out of the race, sometimes someone else does it for you, but often, you just have to sit tight and be happy with where you are. I am still in the rookie division and I am still in a rookie series, so keeping that in mind, we take our time.
I somehow missed three weeks on the street stock series, so I will probably never get back on pace with that series in championship points, but I have been making great strides in safety and irating in those races just playing it safe, and getting plenty of traffic practice starting mid pack. The C class street stock has full cautions, larger fields, and different tracks every week, and there is where I plan on being most of my time after I get to that license.
I am going to try and make a video soon to highlight my adventures in rookie division soon. Hopefully making a highlight reel every couple of weeks. Iduno, it seems to take me forever to make videos.
Season 1, 2020, Week 6, Legends , Lanier Raceplex
So after getting my first ever hard challenged runner up finish ( the first was in street stock at Lakeland, but I only got it because EVERY SINGLE CAR had crashed out in front of me. This one, in the legends '34 Ford , I started halfway in the field in 6th, and though I did receive some ( 9pt ) incident points in the first few laps ( all my fault, and it was rough.... not my proudest starts ) , I legitimately, in mid splits, passed four cars. If there was ten more laps ( and that lapped car wasn't there ), I would have won the race.
Not sure why people care what split they are in. I mean, if you are in top splits, you are in the pack of the best cars. But really, if your not, your not, and you still have to race. So, I am not sure why I was mid split. I really don't care.
Regardless, I felt the best about this race then I have this entire time. I am actually learning how to go fast, for the first time. So , what did I do differently? Well, for starters, I freaking practiced. I went and found the fastest numbers and raced against it in practice.
The first session, I ran 90 laps, and could only get 23.1xx once. My average was 23.788 . The all time best was 21.1 , and though that was quite the difference, I just simply decided I wanted to go fast.
The next day, I ran 90 laps again, and get this shit..... I ran a 22.7 once and a average of 22.9 . I was excited about the fastest lap, but after the whole session, I can calculate my average on the last 20 lap stint and it was over a half second faster than the last time.
Next day, I practiced again. This time I did 60 laps, took a break and ran another 60 laps. Both times, we just a touched fast than before. The next day, I raced. First with two half hour open practice and then to the race.
Yeah, that is what I am going to do for now on. Practice, practice, practice, open practice, practice, race.
This week, it is the now abandoned Lanier Raceplex.
For now on, I am going to keep the times for the all-time fastest, and 25th all-time. This is just a damn number, so I am not going to feel bad when I can't even get a second close to it.
At lanier , the time range to shoot for is 14.377 - 14.622 . Tonight is tuesday.... I am going to practice five times. an hour each. Open Practice on Sunday, Race on Monday. The race week changes monday at 4pm, so I will more than likely not be tempted to race again,.... because I won't be able to.
UPDATE:
Tuesday I couldn't seem to go very fast. This track really requires a lot of slow down at the turn apex, especially at turn three into four. I got a 15.22 as my fastest and averaged about 15.5 . Not exactly an all-time record. I hadn't checked what top split was doing, but last night, on Wednesday, I practiced again and hit a 14.977 as my fastest and was averaging 15.211 . At the end of practicing , I ran a twenty lap straight stint with an average of 15.197 , and was being shown as third in a open practice session ( of twenty two cars ). This prompted me to race. yeah,... I am not that disciplined.
I qualified second and ran a no incident race finishing fourth. I could see the sun go behind the clouds in lap ten and could almost swear that five laps later I wasn't gripping the track as well. I am not positive this played a roll, but my setup was expecting a slightly warmer track then what we ended up with at the end ( I can't check track temp until after the race ). Still, I was very pleased with the results. Maybe oscillating days of practice and race is a descent plan? I am going to practice only tonight and race tomorrow and see how that turns out.
So far, week 6 of the Legends Series ( half way through the season ) and I am holding on to 24th in standings ( out of 4482 )
Not sure why people care what split they are in. I mean, if you are in top splits, you are in the pack of the best cars. But really, if your not, your not, and you still have to race. So, I am not sure why I was mid split. I really don't care.
Regardless, I felt the best about this race then I have this entire time. I am actually learning how to go fast, for the first time. So , what did I do differently? Well, for starters, I freaking practiced. I went and found the fastest numbers and raced against it in practice.
The first session, I ran 90 laps, and could only get 23.1xx once. My average was 23.788 . The all time best was 21.1 , and though that was quite the difference, I just simply decided I wanted to go fast.
The next day, I ran 90 laps again, and get this shit..... I ran a 22.7 once and a average of 22.9 . I was excited about the fastest lap, but after the whole session, I can calculate my average on the last 20 lap stint and it was over a half second faster than the last time.
Next day, I practiced again. This time I did 60 laps, took a break and ran another 60 laps. Both times, we just a touched fast than before. The next day, I raced. First with two half hour open practice and then to the race.
Yeah, that is what I am going to do for now on. Practice, practice, practice, open practice, practice, race.
This week, it is the now abandoned Lanier Raceplex.
Lanier was a typical southern dirt track when it opened in 1982. Five years later the 3/8-mile oval was paved, and its moderately-banked wide-open turns and fairly short straightaways made NASCAR-sanctioned Lanier National Speedway a good test for the track's weekly racing divisions, among them Pro Late Models, open-wheel Modifieds and Legends Cars.Located across the highway from the Road Atlanta road course in Braselton, GA, in the track's heydays it was not unusual to find world renowned road-racers scattered among the throngs watching the intense racing at Lanier, no doubt wondering if they could hack it out there running wheel-to-wheel, lap after lap.Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, David Stremme, Bobby Labonte and road-racer and occasional NASCAR driver Andy Lally all competed at Lanier before the track suspended its weekly racing program following the 2011 season. Lanier National Speedway was purchased by another road racer Jim Downing and renamed Lanier Raceplex in 2014. However, plans to reopen the facility as a race track/stadium concert venue have yet to bear fruit. In the meantime, iRacers can still race on a digital version of Lanier while waiting for the hills of Braselton to, once again, echo with the sounds of Georgia-style short track racing.
For now on, I am going to keep the times for the all-time fastest, and 25th all-time. This is just a damn number, so I am not going to feel bad when I can't even get a second close to it.
At lanier , the time range to shoot for is 14.377 - 14.622 . Tonight is tuesday.... I am going to practice five times. an hour each. Open Practice on Sunday, Race on Monday. The race week changes monday at 4pm, so I will more than likely not be tempted to race again,.... because I won't be able to.
UPDATE:
Tuesday I couldn't seem to go very fast. This track really requires a lot of slow down at the turn apex, especially at turn three into four. I got a 15.22 as my fastest and averaged about 15.5 . Not exactly an all-time record. I hadn't checked what top split was doing, but last night, on Wednesday, I practiced again and hit a 14.977 as my fastest and was averaging 15.211 . At the end of practicing , I ran a twenty lap straight stint with an average of 15.197 , and was being shown as third in a open practice session ( of twenty two cars ). This prompted me to race. yeah,... I am not that disciplined.
I qualified second and ran a no incident race finishing fourth. I could see the sun go behind the clouds in lap ten and could almost swear that five laps later I wasn't gripping the track as well. I am not positive this played a roll, but my setup was expecting a slightly warmer track then what we ended up with at the end ( I can't check track temp until after the race ). Still, I was very pleased with the results. Maybe oscillating days of practice and race is a descent plan? I am going to practice only tonight and race tomorrow and see how that turns out.
So far, week 6 of the Legends Series ( half way through the season ) and I am holding on to 24th in standings ( out of 4482 )
Friday, January 10, 2020
It has been a couple of months, and I have gotten out of rookie class and now have my D class license. The first thing I did was start practicing and racing in the K&N series at Richmond. This, I now realize in hindsight , was a waste of my time. There was A class drivers in that race, and I was usually one of or the only D class in the race. I of course had to race at least four times in that level for promotion to C class, but my rating was still below three, so it really wasn't important. After ten or so races at Richmond, never finishing on the lead lap, and with one DNF, the series went on to Talladega, which was probably one of the most humbling experiences I have had so far.
At first, I knew I shouldn't race , coming to the realization that higher class racers race in lower division series on purpose ( this was a D class minimum series flooded with A class drivers ), I knew I should go back to the rookie class series and start working on going fast and staying safe. But then I watched one of the races, and watching that field , stacked three wide, going nearly 200 mph, nose to tail..... well, I had to try.
First race, I spent two sessions in open practice . It was neat seeing other cars right out side of pit road waiting for a drafting partner. I was like "oh right, hell yeah" . But as we got up to speed and into turns three and four, you quickly realize what kind of shit show this might become.
The car wants to leave the draft, and it gets to fast when in the draft. If you bump the lead, you lose speed and can fall out of the draft. If you bump slightly off center, they will wiggle and lift, and the risk of a wreck becomes almost unavoidable. Oh, and if you have someone behind you as well, this all of a sudden becomes ten times harder. I once read someone changed the ratio on their wheel to try and compensate for this, and it helped, but it was still more than difficult to hold on.
Open practice was fun, but the race was a disaster. I somehow lost all down force going into turn three and spun straight up into the wall, completely destroying my car. I was able to limp back to the pits but never could get up to normal speed and was around twenty miles per hour off the pace. I became a road block. My stupid ass decided to try it again, and the near same thing happened, this time on lap three ( so I felt better about it? ) , but this time I spun inward from outside while three wide, completely destroying both cars next to me. Who was one of them? Yeah, a pro champion, Graham Bowlin. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time. After I got my bearings, I was limping my way back to the pits when he slammed into me as I passed him ( he was probably on his way to the pits as well ). I quit the race, went to check his name and add him to a list of people to avoid when the next day I was reading and came across his name, to than learn he was a past champion. Yeah, I wasn't going back to K&N for a while. I just fucked up a champions race because I didn't belong in a race and went in anyways.
So I took a few days off and then looked at my choices. The rookie class street stock series only races at two tracks, and Charlotte at 145mph is boring as crap. And though I had been racing both legends and street stock, I knew I had to focus on just one. I chose legends.
Things were going descent, status quot really, until a week ago. I had one horrible race after another. So horrible, I was disqualified in two of them. Knocking my saftey rating down from 3.65 to 2.51 . But I was doing the same thing as before, qualifying low and trying to stay out of harms way. This had to stop. I need to be in the front, if not the pole. But to do this , I have to master cold tire hot laps. This practice led me to realize I needed to practice even more race less.
So this week, Legends are at Thompson Speedway. I practiced for two one hour sessions. Working on my corner entries and exits. I improved a few tenths both practice sessions, and yesterday was able to improve a few more tenths during practice. I was able to qualify mid pack, which was good. The race start was a bit of a pain in the ass and I racked up 6 incident points , but the remainder of the race I was able to not only stay on the lead lap, but managed to finish second.
This is the new plan. Practice more, cut times, rinse, repeat.
At first, I knew I shouldn't race , coming to the realization that higher class racers race in lower division series on purpose ( this was a D class minimum series flooded with A class drivers ), I knew I should go back to the rookie class series and start working on going fast and staying safe. But then I watched one of the races, and watching that field , stacked three wide, going nearly 200 mph, nose to tail..... well, I had to try.
First race, I spent two sessions in open practice . It was neat seeing other cars right out side of pit road waiting for a drafting partner. I was like "oh right, hell yeah" . But as we got up to speed and into turns three and four, you quickly realize what kind of shit show this might become.
The car wants to leave the draft, and it gets to fast when in the draft. If you bump the lead, you lose speed and can fall out of the draft. If you bump slightly off center, they will wiggle and lift, and the risk of a wreck becomes almost unavoidable. Oh, and if you have someone behind you as well, this all of a sudden becomes ten times harder. I once read someone changed the ratio on their wheel to try and compensate for this, and it helped, but it was still more than difficult to hold on.
Open practice was fun, but the race was a disaster. I somehow lost all down force going into turn three and spun straight up into the wall, completely destroying my car. I was able to limp back to the pits but never could get up to normal speed and was around twenty miles per hour off the pace. I became a road block. My stupid ass decided to try it again, and the near same thing happened, this time on lap three ( so I felt better about it? ) , but this time I spun inward from outside while three wide, completely destroying both cars next to me. Who was one of them? Yeah, a pro champion, Graham Bowlin. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time. After I got my bearings, I was limping my way back to the pits when he slammed into me as I passed him ( he was probably on his way to the pits as well ). I quit the race, went to check his name and add him to a list of people to avoid when the next day I was reading and came across his name, to than learn he was a past champion. Yeah, I wasn't going back to K&N for a while. I just fucked up a champions race because I didn't belong in a race and went in anyways.
So I took a few days off and then looked at my choices. The rookie class street stock series only races at two tracks, and Charlotte at 145mph is boring as crap. And though I had been racing both legends and street stock, I knew I had to focus on just one. I chose legends.
Things were going descent, status quot really, until a week ago. I had one horrible race after another. So horrible, I was disqualified in two of them. Knocking my saftey rating down from 3.65 to 2.51 . But I was doing the same thing as before, qualifying low and trying to stay out of harms way. This had to stop. I need to be in the front, if not the pole. But to do this , I have to master cold tire hot laps. This practice led me to realize I needed to practice even more race less.
So this week, Legends are at Thompson Speedway. I practiced for two one hour sessions. Working on my corner entries and exits. I improved a few tenths both practice sessions, and yesterday was able to improve a few more tenths during practice. I was able to qualify mid pack, which was good. The race start was a bit of a pain in the ass and I racked up 6 incident points , but the remainder of the race I was able to not only stay on the lead lap, but managed to finish second.
This is the new plan. Practice more, cut times, rinse, repeat.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Racers, start your engines!
Some might think its a bit hilarious to take a racing sim game and call it a career. Well, it is. But, this career is something any athlete would understand. When you love a game so much, and have a passion for it that is deep within the blood that pumps through your veins, you virtually have no choice. Racing is something I have loved since the first day my dad took me to the track. Well, it wasn't the first day, but as a child, you remember things that stick with you forever.
My father was a sportsman class drag racer. He always brought a 70's era Chevy Camaro to the track, first street, than later, sportsman class. He still goes to the track to this day, taking a decade off to race pro stock at the dirt circle track. Drag racing is a mechanics sport. It is the hot rod lovers sport. My father loved his Camaro, and he might not admit it, but he is a damn good mechanic as well. His brain and the engineers gene was given to me. That is probably why I am such a freak about mechanics and engineering.
The days we spent at the drag strip were hot, full of Gatorade , and always a great way to spend the weekend. I remember loving it. There was a patch of grass near the tower, and I would run around and play, ride my mongoose bmx bike all around and watch the line waiting for his turn to run. When his car was in the last slot, I would run up to the tower and watch him run. Then I would run down, hop on the bike, and meet him at the truck. If he won, we went on to the next round. If he lost, we packed up and sat down and watch the rest of the races.
The best part would be the dragsters, and the funny cars. Funny cars were not actually funny, but was a name given to the roadsters that had the engine placed in front of the cock pit, versus the dragsters that had the engine in the back ( hence the name, drag ). Funny cars originally looked liked dragsters minus the engine position, but in the modern day, had a lift-able body. They were awesome, loud, and burned alcohol , which was the best smell in the world, especially mixed with the smell of cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Yeah, these were the things that stuck with me the most. The smell of racing and the quality time with Dad.
The really inspiring time came when they built the circle track in the same park. Dad went to work on building a pro stock race car and started racing. We watched NASCAR on Sunday, and raced on Saturday. That was our life, well his, and I was more than happy to be part of it. The smell of racing fuel , wet clay dirt, and burning antifreeze was everything and more. And of course, my favorite part was a Pit Dog. A huge hot dog smothered in onions and cheese, mustard and pickled jalapenos, washed down with a arctic frost Gatorade .
Dad would wrap a damp towl around his right leg to help prevent scolding from the heat of the exhaust. The race car was just an engine, a roll cage, and some thin sheet metal. It really was the coolest race car I had ever seen. Granted , the pro stock class was the smallest class of race cars not including minis, it was the working class race car. Hence the name, stock. There used to be caps on how much and what kind of components could be on the car, and so it made it a level playing field.
It was a 1/4 mile track, and so you never really left second gear. The top speed was around 70 to 80 mph, which doesn't seem like much, until you are drifting through the corners with a field, getting pelted with balls of clay. No windshield , just a thick wire mesh, perfect for catching more of that flying clay. Not only did you have to navigate through a field of cars, but you had to look past all of the wet mud, and tear off from your helmet.
I only raced once. I am pretty sure it was a qualifying race, and I ended up high siding on the backstretch wall. I can't really remember what all happen , but I do remember wishing I had more time to practice.
It stuck with me forever.
Now, more than ever, I want to race. As it is and has been, I have never had weekend nights off, working a job that never really permitted any kind of hobby. The Peak Antifreeze NASCAR sanctioned and sponsored circuit on iRacing was televised for the first time this last year, and I watched a few of the races, and pondered heavily on the awesomeness of such an event. I watched a few of them and thought to myself "this would be a heck of a lot cheaper than the real thing" .
I originally set out to be the next champion, only to be quickly humbled when I realized how damn hard it is. The sim, just like real life, is extremely challenging, and in all reality, is missing a bunch of things that make it even tougher. Things like, extreme heat, massive G's , the impact of collisions, the risk of bodily injury ( even if bodily injury is extremely rare now days ), the weight and encumberment of a ten pound helmet on your head, etc,...
Yet, thousands of us still race, and many don't really care, and some of us really care, but even if it is a sim, it is a game, just like the real thing. There is a fine line of caring a lot and not caring to much that it enrages you when you get involved in a incident. That is just first part of the balancing act, the second is the car, going as fast as you can with out over-steering into the wall.
There is that, the desire to win, and that is the absolute center of racing. So now, I realize it isn't about becoming a champion, its about being the best I can be, and being grateful and thankful for the opportunity to just race.
This is that journey
My father was a sportsman class drag racer. He always brought a 70's era Chevy Camaro to the track, first street, than later, sportsman class. He still goes to the track to this day, taking a decade off to race pro stock at the dirt circle track. Drag racing is a mechanics sport. It is the hot rod lovers sport. My father loved his Camaro, and he might not admit it, but he is a damn good mechanic as well. His brain and the engineers gene was given to me. That is probably why I am such a freak about mechanics and engineering.
The days we spent at the drag strip were hot, full of Gatorade , and always a great way to spend the weekend. I remember loving it. There was a patch of grass near the tower, and I would run around and play, ride my mongoose bmx bike all around and watch the line waiting for his turn to run. When his car was in the last slot, I would run up to the tower and watch him run. Then I would run down, hop on the bike, and meet him at the truck. If he won, we went on to the next round. If he lost, we packed up and sat down and watch the rest of the races.
The best part would be the dragsters, and the funny cars. Funny cars were not actually funny, but was a name given to the roadsters that had the engine placed in front of the cock pit, versus the dragsters that had the engine in the back ( hence the name, drag ). Funny cars originally looked liked dragsters minus the engine position, but in the modern day, had a lift-able body. They were awesome, loud, and burned alcohol , which was the best smell in the world, especially mixed with the smell of cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Yeah, these were the things that stuck with me the most. The smell of racing and the quality time with Dad.
The really inspiring time came when they built the circle track in the same park. Dad went to work on building a pro stock race car and started racing. We watched NASCAR on Sunday, and raced on Saturday. That was our life, well his, and I was more than happy to be part of it. The smell of racing fuel , wet clay dirt, and burning antifreeze was everything and more. And of course, my favorite part was a Pit Dog. A huge hot dog smothered in onions and cheese, mustard and pickled jalapenos, washed down with a arctic frost Gatorade .
Dad would wrap a damp towl around his right leg to help prevent scolding from the heat of the exhaust. The race car was just an engine, a roll cage, and some thin sheet metal. It really was the coolest race car I had ever seen. Granted , the pro stock class was the smallest class of race cars not including minis, it was the working class race car. Hence the name, stock. There used to be caps on how much and what kind of components could be on the car, and so it made it a level playing field.
It was a 1/4 mile track, and so you never really left second gear. The top speed was around 70 to 80 mph, which doesn't seem like much, until you are drifting through the corners with a field, getting pelted with balls of clay. No windshield , just a thick wire mesh, perfect for catching more of that flying clay. Not only did you have to navigate through a field of cars, but you had to look past all of the wet mud, and tear off from your helmet.
I only raced once. I am pretty sure it was a qualifying race, and I ended up high siding on the backstretch wall. I can't really remember what all happen , but I do remember wishing I had more time to practice.
It stuck with me forever.
Now, more than ever, I want to race. As it is and has been, I have never had weekend nights off, working a job that never really permitted any kind of hobby. The Peak Antifreeze NASCAR sanctioned and sponsored circuit on iRacing was televised for the first time this last year, and I watched a few of the races, and pondered heavily on the awesomeness of such an event. I watched a few of them and thought to myself "this would be a heck of a lot cheaper than the real thing" .
I originally set out to be the next champion, only to be quickly humbled when I realized how damn hard it is. The sim, just like real life, is extremely challenging, and in all reality, is missing a bunch of things that make it even tougher. Things like, extreme heat, massive G's , the impact of collisions, the risk of bodily injury ( even if bodily injury is extremely rare now days ), the weight and encumberment of a ten pound helmet on your head, etc,...
Yet, thousands of us still race, and many don't really care, and some of us really care, but even if it is a sim, it is a game, just like the real thing. There is a fine line of caring a lot and not caring to much that it enrages you when you get involved in a incident. That is just first part of the balancing act, the second is the car, going as fast as you can with out over-steering into the wall.
There is that, the desire to win, and that is the absolute center of racing. So now, I realize it isn't about becoming a champion, its about being the best I can be, and being grateful and thankful for the opportunity to just race.
This is that journey
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