Auto Racing & Performance

Now that the race season is officially over for me, I have plenty of things to do to get ready for next season. This I have decided to try to keep my skills up and learn new tracks with Sim Racing or by using Racing Simulators. I picked up a copy of RACE07 at BestBuy for $9.99 and was using a CH flight yoke and pedals to control it.

I was up and driving a BMW around Bran’s Hatch within a few minutes. It was great, but I know nothing about Bran’s Hatch and learning a track in a SIM is hard for me. I wanted a track I was familiar with, but RACE07 does not feature any US tracks. Enter the modding community. With in Minutes I had Lime Rock Park (from 2007) loaded. This is a track I am familiar with and have driven a real race car on. As soon as I finished my first lap I was hooked. A real set of racing wheels and pedals were in order.

The Logitech G25 Wheel and Pedals are “THE” set to own, but they cost $300 bucks, but a search on eBay landed me an almost new set up for less than $200 delivered. Add to that the game rFactor, and some more US tracks and I have a whole season of racing just waiting in my home office.

My only problem is that many of the Tracks that I want are not available on one game, so multiple games are required. My next step will be to try iRacing.com. This Sim is $20 bucks a month, but is like an entire second virtual racing world, with their own ladder system and you have to buy more cars and track if you want to use them.
Only next year will I be able to tell if my off season sim racing has helped my racing, but I am still having fun.