SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Sim Racing

Weasel arrived at the end of the summer, and after taking a week to get adjusted to the time zones and the daily rhythm of combat operations we made plans to rendezvous at the Dining Facility (or DFAC) for lunch.

Our first meeting for lunch was quite enjoyable. Although we’d never actually met, Weasel and I immediately picked each other out of the crowd (I’ve heard that one computer geek can sense another’s presence almost instinctively!). We discussed our jobs, life at the base, our families, and of course, SimHQ and our shared interest in personal computers and simulations. It was a good meeting, and once again we discovered just how much simulation enthusiasts have in common, besides enjoying the same hobby. We made plans to have lunch again to discuss the possibility of doing some sim racing with my laptop.

"Weasel" getting directions.

"About a week after I arrived in country I received an e-mail from "Chunx", checking to see how my job was going. After I got settled into a bit of a routine with my work schedule we arranged a lunch meeting at the dining facility (DFAC) after I got off work.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous. He’s written numerous great articles here at SimHQ, is an awesome sim racer, and he’s a naval officer to boot. I went to the DFAC and saw him sitting where he said he would be. I walked up, checked his nametape just to make sure and snapped a salute. “Good afternoon sir!” He stood, returned the salute and offered a handshake.

I could see in his eyes that after months and months in Iraq, he was ready to talk face-to-face with someone who shared his passion for sims. I think I started out a little slow mainly because I’d just come off a 13 hour shift and I’ve been used to talking about non-geeky stuff with the guys usually in the key of “cuss like a sailor”.

What a cool time I had. Like "Chunx" said, here I was in Iraq, in a combat zone, enjoying lunch and a long discussion of racing sims, racing in general, SimHQ stuff, and the local insurgents’ penchant for mortars with someone I’ve driven online with for quite some time but had never met in person. After only a few minutes I felt as though I’d known him in-person for years.

We met for lunch a time or two more and then Chunx asked me if I’d like to get some sim time in and check out his rig. Heck yeah! I hadn’t done any simming for a few weeks and it’s normally how I spend my free time back home. I was hungry to get back behind the wheel. He called me a day before we were going to meet and told me to meet him at the DFAC… and bring my helmet. WTH? I’m not going on one of his unit’s missions, why do I need my helmet?

I arrived at the DFAC at the scheduled time and stood around for a minute. Out of the sand an armored HUMVEE pulled up and it was Chunx. Sweet! Evidently you have to wear a helmet to ride in a HUMVEE. Safety first!"

Despite the military conveniently deploying two SimHQ’ers to the same base, we still had a small coordination problem with time: I worked primarily in the day, and Weasel had the night shift. It looked like the only time we could get together was on his “day off” (something unique to the USAF crowd!). We soon made plans to meet up around lunchtime on his day off, for an hour or so of sim time.

After another lunch together, Weasel and I finally met up at a location where I had set up my mobile gaming rig. For the next hour we did a little sim-racing and talked about the hobby, our families, our jobs, etc. Because of our conflicting work schedules, we could only make time for about 90 minutes of racing, but we made the most of our brief opportunity. Really, it was just nice to find someone in Iraq to share this esoteric hobby with. Over the next few weeks things got busy for both of us and I was due to rotate home, but we did find the time to get together one more time for lunch and another half-hour of sim racing, and we enjoyed that session as well. I was glad Weasel got a chance to experience a little bit of his hobby so far from home.

Go To Page 5

Click here to go to top of this page.