First Steps
Posted by: OllieNewman - Posted: January 23, 2021
In the middle of last year one of my old karting buddies approached me with a proposition. Knowing that i have always wanted to race but money was the limiting factor, he said “lets go sim racing”. My first thought was how hard could it be? Oh, very………
Yes, anyone can do it. To do it well? You will have to work hard.
I started off with the basics. A PC, a wheel and pedal set and a game to race on (I will come back to set ups in the future). We looked for a championship and came across SimRacing.Club – The home of the Virtual Endurance Championship. These guys know how to run a championship, you have to gain a licence to enter their championships. They have race stewards, dedicated servers, professional drivers and penalties if you misbehave!
I gained my license and set about entering a championship. A new championship was created so I thought to myself, Why not start a new team? JOY Motorsport was created to race in the GT3 Endurance championship. Knowing that I was as rookie as can be, I felt a lot of pressure to perform and find others who could help push the team towards success.
Let’s hope that we can get some good results!
JP2020
January 26, 2021 at 5:40 pm
Good Afternoon Oli, welcome to the network!
What a way to strike up a conversation, I suppose it is nice reflecting on how you got started in Esports/SIM racing?
Seems you got started off on the right foot, utilising the basics, selecting a good series/organising body to get involved with.
So, how has the experience been so far, what it what you expected, is it difficult in your particular series and with the equipment you have?
JamesHarvey
January 26, 2021 at 7:22 pm
Great post and I agree with a lot of what you say. Sim Racing is quickly becoming a brilliant way to dip your toe in the motorsport world, and not just from the driving perspective either. I think experience at spotting, setting a car up and managing a racing team are all great things you can learn from the sim world that are directly transferable to the real pit lane as well!
OllieNewman
January 27, 2021 at 3:18 pm
Hi JP,
It is definitely more difficult than I expected. Especially with the talent I an racing against, which include a current British GT driver and a former world’s fastest gamer! I feel I could gain some speed with a better set up but I’m working on that one. I will keep you all updated on how I get on!
JP2020
January 30, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Hey Ollie,
Difficult is good, right? Where is the reward otherwise?
I suppose many look at esports/sim racing as a way to get involved with (in most cases) lesser cost and ‘risks’ involved.
Secondly, you’re absolutely right, you and many others too are able to ‘line-up’ and ‘rub arches’ with racing drivers that you would never have been able to prior to the emergence of this technology.
That said in order to ‘climb’ the ladder of what is becoming or in most cases is already is a massive industry, it costs money and the stakes are as high as in any motorsport series or championship.
So there you go for a contradiction, please do keep us updated!
But, what steps are you, or can you or others take in order to develop ‘basic set-ups or rigs?