SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Racing Online: A SimHQ-er's Vignette

I was lucky enough to make my dream career become a reality. Flying Navy jets from aircraft carriers at sea has been as extremely rewarding a career as I could have hoped for. But growing up, I had another fantasy career that I would have been equally happy with; that of a professional race car driver. But that dream never became a reality. Luckily, my PC can offer me some insight into what that world must be like, in the form of Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, supported by a force feedback steering wheel and a robust 3rd party mod community. Since 2000 I have enjoyed the challenge and reward offered by a variety of racing simulations that have offered me a unique look into a profession that goes far beyond what mere TV shows or books can offer.

Like most of you I was drawn to the PC simulation hobby by high fidelity flight sims, but since my introduction to PC simulations in 1998 I have discovered that driving high-end racing simulations like NASCAR Racing 2003 Season can be just as — or even more — exciting and rewarding than a good flight or tactical sim title.

A few nights ago I had one of the most memorable, exciting and heart-pounding online experiences of my 5 years in this hobby.

Here’s what happened: I was racing on Sierra.com at Las Vegas. The host was running a 27 lap race with no pit stops or yellow flags. Practice was tight, with all the drivers running similar paces. At the end I had the 3rd fastest time, but it didn't mean much as all the 15 or so competitors had similar times. I could see by the way folks were driving that this might be a challenging race.

In qualifying, I didn't have my best run, but not my worst, either. I was struggling a bit with my turn in on T1 and T3, and that slowed down my #56 car a bit. I wound up qualifying 5th, but the first 6 or 7 cars were all within 3 tenths of a second — I think the 6th position car was just a few thousandths behind me.

That's Me, #56

At the start, the pole car was a bit late reacting to the green flag, and slowed our line down. Despite some reshuffling of the field, I was able to stick to the bumper of the 3rd position car and hold onto 5th place finishing lap 1. Early on in the race, a couple of cars in the back of the field came together, but their wreck had no impact on the front runners in the race. It did serve as a good reminder as to how slippery the Las Vegas track can be and just how easy it is to find yourself pushing out to the wall if you don’t manage your turns precisely on the low banked tracks. Despite the early wreck, I was pleased to see that this race had only a tiny handful of accidents, and none were by folks attempting to drive well past their limits or by any intentional wreckers.

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