Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Screen to Speed No.44: Emma chats with Todd Moonbounce!

Transcript

Screen to Speed No.44: Emma chats with Todd Moonbounce! · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by Ennit Esports.
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In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals,
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making waves in sim racing, and bridging the virtual with the real.
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From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore
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the passion, Dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.
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We'll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories,
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insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and
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creating pathways into motorsports.
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So buckle up, Screen to Speed starts now.
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Hi everybody.
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It's me, Emma Glasso, and I'm here with Todd Moonbounce, who is a good
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friend of mine and someone that I've been racing with for quite some time.
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I'm super excited to have him on Inatox today.
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I do have a bit of news.
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Uh, so I am going to be stepping out of my Inatox role after this.
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Um, interview tonight, because I might be back for a couple more things, but I
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have gotten a new job in motorsports that I will be able to announce soon, but it's
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a dream job for me, and unfortunately means I will not have time to continue
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doing Initalks, but I've had such a great time throughout this experience,
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and I'm so happy that I get to do my final regularly scheduled show with Todd.
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Because, as I said, Todd and I have been racing in the same
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league for quite some time now.
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Todd, how long has it been?
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Almost, I think I've come around to one year for myself, so I know you were
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there a little bit earlier, so yeah.
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Yeah, so for me, I've been in our league since 2021 ish, so
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I guess Almost four years now.
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That's crazy to think about.
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Um, but yeah, so we race every Monday together and through all kinds of
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different series and stuff like that.
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So, um, as Todd said, so he started a little bit after me, but it was really
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cool to see Todd join our league because For the longest time, I was definitely
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the newest driver in our league.
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And having someone also start relatively new to SIM driving was a really cool
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experience to see how far I've come, but also to see how much someone new
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can help push you, because I feel like Todd has definitely helped push me as
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a driver, and he also really helps.
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Uh, push our league forward as well.
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So super thankful for him, um, in our league and all this stuff.
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So, Todd, I just wanted to ask you, how did you get into sim racing?
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What made you start into this?
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Yeah, yeah, first, thanks for having me on.
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Glad to be part of the farewell tour, uh, if you will.
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Uh, congrats to everything on your end.
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Um, yeah, so sim racing for me was, uh, The Las Vegas race, uh, F1 race two years
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ago and now, now, um, basically, I've grown up a fan of racing video games,
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uh, you know, I'll date myself all the way back to Mario Kart on Super Nintendo,
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uh, but, um, you know, Gran Turismo 4, I think, was the main one that I played.
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Uh, you know, but they were still always video games to me.
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Um, but then when got into F1 and, um, the F1 video game had a free play weekend.
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Uh, during the Las Vegas race, um, two years ago.
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And so I picked it up.
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Uh, I have three brothers.
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They pi we all picked it up.
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We've always gamed together.
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And so all weekend we raced and raced.
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And then it was on sale.
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Picked up the full game and continued to play it.
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Uh, on controller still.
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I was gonna ask if it was on controller.
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Yeah, it was still on controller.
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And it was a blast.
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It was so fun.
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And I was like, I just started to get that itch.
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I'm like I want a wheel.
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I want to try this out.
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And, um, you know, I did a lot of, uh, investigating
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and, and got a Logitech wheel.
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Uh, 29, I think I started with and then swapped it right away.
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I got a 923 refurbished that worked out great.
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Um, and just.
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Fell, fell into it.
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It just, you know, it, it sucked me in.
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And, uh, but then right away I was like, F1's great, but I want, I kind
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of want that Gran Turismo feel again and found a set of Corsa and, um,
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just happened to luck out and see a Reddit post from, you know, our league.
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Said hey, a new league is starting, join us if you want, and, um, you know, that's,
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that's, that's really kind of like what I would say is my, where my start in sim
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racing was, was joining SBR and the league and, and diving into that, not really
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knowing what I was getting into, and, and just kind of this whole new world, yeah.
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So, so here's a question for you, because I dealt with this when I first joined.
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Um, how was learning Assetto Corsa for the first time coming into sim racing?
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Because it intimidated me.
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A ton when I first started.
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So I'm curious how it was for you.
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Yeah.
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So I think like before the league, I don't know if I found, you know, content
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managers, so those out there familiar with the setup course likely know what content
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manager is when we talk about that, but.
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I think I started before that.
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So, you know, it wasn't too bad because it was, you know, I'll reference Gran
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it was close to that in some regard.
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Um, and then it was like, well, if you want to be in the league, you got to have
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content manager and doing all that stuff.
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And that was like, all right, what am I working with here?
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Um, but then it came along.
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So that kind of side of it was fine.
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But then getting into the actual racing and whatnot.
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Um, I think went well, went, you know, smooth enough.
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Um.
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What was your first race in series?
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I don't remember.
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What was it?
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The, uh, I think it was like the club.
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Um, so we had the multi class of the, the Mazdas, the Toyotas, and the BMWs.
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E86 or something like that.
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Oh, yeah.
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Okay, cool.
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Cause, yeah, I was, I was trying to think of what livery.
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That was the art car livery.
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That was fun.
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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, so.
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Oh, that's an interesting one.
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Yeah, it was probably, um, it was probably the perfect series for me to join because
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it was, you know, I, I drove the MX 5, um, you know, I think it was a relatively
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easier car to deal with, especially like setup wise, like I didn't have to deal
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with setups too much, I mean, there was, um, you know, thinking about, I don't,
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I don't know what was the season before, but the season after was super GT and
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that was like, Night and day different.
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Yeah.
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From that and it was, but I was, that was my first season.
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My first season was GT 500 . Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Like that.
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I dunno if it would've scared me away, but it would've been a very different
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experience, you know, meeting all these new people and, and just trying
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to like, you know, I was so nervous.
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Like, I'm brand new to this.
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I don't know where I stand skill-wise.
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Like, I don't wanna be in the way.
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Um, I don't want to ruin other people's fun here because I'm trying to learn.
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And, um, you know, luckily that was anything but the experience.
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I think even, uh, where my skill level was, um, and still is to this day, uh,
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you know, the group is super welcoming and that's really helped, you know, me
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continue to grow as a, as a sim racer.
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Yeah, I would totally agree.
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And we'll, we'll touch on this a little bit later on in the show, but.
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I always talk about how our league really makes it, and we have a couple
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of them in chat, uh, including Tree, who, my first race, uh, Tree was in
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line to win it, and I took him out in last place, and he was laughing at me.
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So sorry, Tree.
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But hey, we're all still friends, so it works out.
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And that's the beauty of the community of sim racing, is you can have, you
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know, these horrible things happen, but you're all friends at the end of
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the day, because you need each other.
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Whether it's to push each other, or to race together every week, because If
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you think about what we do in real life, getting ten people together in the same
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room to do anything is difficult enough, let alone getting ten people across.
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It's North America and beyond in our league to come together
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on Monday nights is super hard.
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International.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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It's super great.
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Everyone is super awesome.
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I think, um, you know, there's lots of competitiveness, uh,
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but in a very healthy way.
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And, you know, as you said, I think when you mentioned kind of in the intro.
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Um, when I started to get a feel for the other drivers, you know, I know it's
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like, all right, I mean, I, or, you know, seem to be a little bit close on pace.
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Like, you know, it was just kind of like, all right, you know, she's
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gonna, she's kind of my rival, uh, you know, whether she knows it or not.
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And it was kind of that target, like, all right, you know, definitely, you
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know, want to try and keep pace with her.
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And likewise, I was like, man, I can't let the new guy catch me.
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So it was a lot of like putting extra time in the seat to try to get.
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Everything perfect.
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So you can really yeah, but I do remember it was you and me in Suzuka And I must
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have been gt500s or something and I totally adored you No, I remember that
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The other thing is I had a setting on, um, that didn't let my headlights work
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as well as they should because that that race transition from day to night, right?
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Yeah.
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And my headlights were basically useless.
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And that very last, like, chicane there, whatever, um, is where it
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happened because it's after that straight real heartbreaking zone.
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And I mean, I couldn't see anything.
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And so it was just like, Whatever is what it is, but yeah, yeah, it was totally I
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watched the replay because at first I was like man What the heck happened there?
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Then I watched the replay.
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It was a hundred percent me.
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I was just like, oh, I cannot break him Definitely couldn't
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That's the cool thing so Uh, for those who are watching who are, don't have
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a league or something, our league is kind of different, well, at least
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compared to other leagues that I have attempted to find in the past.
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Um, all of us are, are all talking throughout the race, usually within
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reason, um, we always stay behind and talk after the race and do replays and stuff.
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And I really think that that really helps build our community
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because that's where we're talking, we're getting to know each other.
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Week after week we're talking about things and.
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It really makes the, the community that much stronger and I, I have tried to
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find other leagues before, and SBR is still the league for me that, you know,
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everyone's there and really consistent.
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Um, and speaking of, yes, tree, competitive casual.
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Um, but speaking of that.
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Uh, let's talk a little bit about the upcoming race that Innit is hosting,
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which is for National Women's Day, or International Women's Day, sorry.
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Um, so we're doing, um, do you want to talk a little bit about the cars
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that we're driving and the track?
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Because you have experience driving these cars, and I don't, so I think you'd
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be the better person to talk about it.
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Yeah, go ahead and introduce the race and then, yeah, I'll definitely
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talk on my experience there.
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Yeah, so, um, if you can help me out for one second.
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So we're at Charlotte, which is in Oval, and we're in the Mini Stock.
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And, so, can you explain a little bit about what those cars even are?
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Because, when I first heard that, I was like, what, what car is that?
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Like, or when I first started iRacing, I should say, like, what, how
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would you describe Mini Stock cars?
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It is a smaller version of the street stock, so you got to know what a street
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stock is to start, yeah, so, you know, as I said, as I was telling Emma in the
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pre show as we were kind of catching up that I'm definitely not a gearhead, uh,
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you know, cars are not something I've ever had a huge interest in, um, you
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know, especially at a mechanical level or things, so, uh, you know, yeah, to
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me, it's a smaller version of, uh, the street stock stock car, you know, an oval
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car that you go and, uh, Go to your local short track and watch them, you know,
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whip around the oval, uh, super good time.
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Um, but they're like, as far as how they drive, um, they're a lot of fun.
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I like them more than the street stock.
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The street stocks, they just feel like a little bit more of a boat to me.
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Um, you know, especially.
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On a larger oval like Charlotte, um, and, and it's, it's a lot faster speeds,
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of course, you know, not like the short tracks where you're slowing down a
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little bit to hit those corn, you know, those turns and go around the track.
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But, um, this.
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The Minis just, to me, they just feel like they glide a little bit better,
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um, than the, than the Street Stocks.
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Would you say they're like a beginner friendly car?
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So someone, so I guess I should back up a little bit.
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For the International Women's Day event, so it's a, it's a women's
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only race that NE Esports is hosting and through screen, um, yeah.
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So, it's gonna be all women on track, which is really cool because women
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in sim racing, uh, as in it kind of talks about all the time through
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screen to speed and other events.
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It's something that, you don't see a ton of women on iRacing, we're
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trying to change that, but this will be a women's only event to come try
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out the mini stock car at Charlotte.
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So someone might be picking up iRacing for the first time, because all of
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the content that we're using is free.
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So, what, in your opinion, as someone starting out, is this a, a good
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car to start with, a good track to try to, to learn to jump into this?
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Um, I don't know if jumping into Charlotte with the mini stock, uh, but I mean,
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at the same time, you know, dive in, I think, uh, I think like a lot of the,
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you know, the, the free content, quote unquote free content is, is very good.
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It's, it's well rounded across the board.
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Um, there's a little bit of something for everyone.
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Um, and so on the oval.
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side of things.
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Um, Yeah, mini stocks or street stocks I think are great.
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Um,
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I'm, you know, I'll just preface this, that it's very much my
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opinion, but, um, I think I would choose the minis over the regulars.
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Um, if you were just jumping in, but, uh, you know, I think they both would
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offer their own, their own thing.
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Yeah, I, I mean, I'll defer to your opinion, because oval
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racing is, is not my forte.
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I have a lot of respect for people who do race ovals, because I
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remember back in my Gran Turismo days on PlayStation with controller.
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They had the challenge where you had to go from last to first probably at daytona
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I don't even remember and I was like, oh this would be so easy You're just turning
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left and it was so difficult for me.
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I was just dying And so now i've kind of like kept that trauma with me as
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i'm going into iRacing But it's going to be a really cool event this weekend
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It will be streamed so everyone keep a lookout for that and it's going to
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be a great way to support women in sim racing Um and just you know furthering
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sim racing in general Yeah Go for it.
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Yeah.
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As I say, yeah, that's awesome.
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Uh, you know, the, the full spread of, uh, female drivers will be super cool to see.
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And I have found, um, all of those are super fun.
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I think anyone, uh, you know, if you haven't got into it or like, I'm not
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going to get into it, like try it.
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Um, I was never, everyone says they just say try.
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Yeah.
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And then like, This is actually super fun.
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It's actually a blast.
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Um, but I've also found, like, I really enjoy watching Simracing.
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I think Oval, Oval Simracing, I might prefer a little bit more
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to watch online, like streams.
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Um, I found some good ones where there's, there's one channel that, uh,
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a guy that he actually calls Races IRL.
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So he's just got this awesome, like, broadcast voice.
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And he's really good at the, the commentary, um, but it's super enjoyable.
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And I think part of it is because obviously, you know, you can see
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larger portion of the track at, at one time, you can see all the cars on
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like a street track or a road course, you know, you have to jump around if
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the pack spreads out so much, but, um, yeah, oval is super fun to watch.
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Yeah, that's, that's a great point because sometimes it, kind of what
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you're saying when you're on a road course, it can be difficult to watch
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the race as a spectator, if you're not quite ready to jump in the cockpit.
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Um, which we need people to watch too, because, you know,
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just spreading esports around.
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If it's something that people enjoy watching and something like an oval can be
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fun to watch, that, that's totally cool.
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To experience it that way as well.
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I mean, actually Max Verstappen was just talking about that on his red
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line stream, how he actually enjoys watching races almost as much as driving.
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And I think that if you've never tried sim racing before, and you go on and try
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your hand at a couple laps, not only do you have more respect for the drivers
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in real life, but also the sim drivers.
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And then when you watch them really compete.
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You know exactly all the things that they've had to do to get there.
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Um, and like I said, I don't do Ovals, but when I watch an Oval Race, it's
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really fascinating to see what they're doing, and there's so much nuance to it
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that I don't quite understand, but it could be a really cool event to watch.
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So, everyone, it's on March 8th, you can find more information
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on the Innit sites and socials, they'll have more about it there.
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Um, it's gonna take place on the 8th, as I said, All Women's Grid, so It
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is going to be a really fun time.
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Um, I can't wait to watch it.
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It's going to be great.
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So let's move on a little bit to kind of your sim racing in general.
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We talked a little bit about our league, but if someone said like,
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what do you do when you sim race, how would you answer that question?
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Like, what are you racing right now?
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Yeah.
17:08
Um, you know, leagues really dictate that, uh, we only have.
17:13
So much, you know, time in the week.
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And, uh, um, when I first started, especially when I first started, because
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I was still, you know, getting that experience built up, um, it was Monday.
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We have a race.
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So it's just kind of leading up to Monday, you know, practice for
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that race, have the race Monday, and then sometimes Monday night.
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After the race, but definitely the next day, practicing for the next week.
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I mean, it was like right into it.
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That was my focus and, uh, you know, going and going.
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And, um, that was how it was for a while.
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And then, uh, you know, I've spread out.
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Um, I, I also tried a couple other leagues with, uh, um.
17:58
A set of Corsa and just kind of didn't really work out.
18:01
Um, and, uh, yeah, and then I racing, I think this past
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August I joined, uh, I racing.
18:07
So I've kind of got sucked into that.
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Um, do really enjoy that.
18:11
It really enjoyed that.
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It offers basically.
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You know, you can jump in and race with other live people
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almost any time of the day.
18:20
Yeah.
18:20
That's my favorite thing about it too.
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Yeah.
18:22
So, you know, again, it's still that balance of time, like even right now,
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like I've got spreadsheets, uh, for next, you know, iRacing season and,
18:29
and looking at like, all right, what do I want to focus on and, and trying
18:33
to balance, yeah, all the time and what tracks do I own and, and stuff like that.
18:38
Um, so, yeah, so, uh, You know, whatever we're doing in SBR
18:44
is, is kind of my main focus.
18:46
Um, and then iRacing, uh, next season for sure, GT4 is going
18:51
to be a big focus for me.
18:52
I really want to try and, you know, master that car as, as much as possible.
18:57
Um, you know, I have the 86 is probably my favorites.
19:01
Uh, yeah, I know that's one of yours too.
19:04
Um, but yeah, yeah.
19:06
Looking forward to the.
19:09
I've always heard from my friends who do esports professionally and stuff like
19:13
that, that for iRacing specifically, the best way you can get better the fastest
19:18
is to specialize in a specific car.
19:21
So if you just got iRacing and you're wondering where you should start, um,
19:25
people will tell you the MX 5s just because that's the kind of rookie
19:29
league that everyone starts with.
19:30
But for me, it was the 86.
19:32
The Toyota GR86 was definitely my car.
19:36
You really do notice a difference.
19:38
Um, so if you haven't done some racing before, uh, when you learn the car
19:45
itself, every track becomes easier because there's only so many slow corners,
19:49
medium speed corners, high speed corners.
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And once you know exactly what that car is going to do, it's way easier.
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So I think, um, for Utah jumping into the G yeah, GT fours.
19:59
will be a great way to, like you said, master the car and figure everything out.
20:04
Because that's what the professionals are doing.
20:05
They're focusing on one car, one series even.
20:09
And that's just the best way to do it.
20:11
Because then you get to focus on the other things.
20:13
Like your driving technique and all that.
20:15
Once you have the car down, everything's easier.
20:18
Or so they say.
20:20
I don't know.
20:20
I GR86, but You know, it's hard and so I guess we could back up to that a little
20:27
bit So you talk about how you only have a certain amount of time in The sim rig and
20:32
I think a lot of us are kind of the same Um, what do you do outside of sim racing?
20:37
Maybe something just your job in general But have you noticed anything
20:40
in the outside world so to speak, uh coming into your sim racing journey?
20:46
Yeah, definitely.
20:46
Um, I am uh a creative Uh, I've been a creative all my life professionally.
20:52
I'm a graphic designer.
20:54
Um, I've, uh, I'm a musician.
20:56
I play guitar.
20:57
I've been doing that since, uh, you know, forever.
21:00
Um, so always have had a very creative side.
21:04
Uh, and yeah, really do try to bring, uh, that stuff into, you know, new hobbies.
21:09
Uh, that I pick up here and there.
21:11
Um, you know, I think the last big thing that I was doing was, uh, tabletop gaming.
21:17
Um, and really got into, you know, streaming actual plays and really
21:21
enjoyed the production of that.
21:22
So production of the stream and, and designing, uh, you know, the
21:26
overlay graphics and all that stuff.
21:27
Um, you know, it was it a way for me to, uh, scratch that creative itch that, you
21:33
know, my professional life wasn't doing.
21:35
You know, I'm doing design work professionally, but.
21:39
It's stuff for a company.
21:40
It's not what I want to do, you know, um, I'll do it because obviously I get paid
21:44
for it and that's very welcomed, but you know, you still sometimes wants to paint
21:49
with your own set of colors, if you will.
21:51
And, uh, so with sim racing, yeah.
21:53
Like when I first joined, um, again, kind of go back to like, how, you know,
21:58
how did you dive into a set of Corsa?
22:00
And, um, then it was like, all right, you know, we're doing custom liveries here.
22:05
And, uh, you know, I'm gonna go back to need for speed underground.
22:09
And that was like, you know, I loved the racing, but designing
22:12
the cars was potentially.
22:15
My other favorite part, you know, making them look cool.
22:17
So, you know, designing liveries, uh, in a set of courses for the league
22:22
was just, you know, super cool.
22:24
And I remember like my first one was totally like, I'm
22:26
literally just figuring this out.
22:27
Like, you would not know that I'm a professional graphic designer by this,
22:32
like just solid color shapes on here.
22:34
And I was like, this is so cool.
22:35
And then like, we go to the league and like, everyone's just like these amazing.
22:39
Yeah.
22:40
That's the cool thing also about our league.
22:43
Um, so.
22:44
Our league has a livery contest every season, most seasons I should say.
22:49
And it's always so cool to see people, what they bring to the table.
22:54
They either have friends from other leagues helping them out making livery,
22:57
or like you and I make our own liveries.
22:59
And we all have our own different style, and it's really cool to see the same
23:03
people bring Different ideas, like we have a team every time that is,
23:08
um, advocating for a certain cause.
23:10
So their livery is about a certain cause, so it's always interesting to
23:13
see which one they're going to pick.
23:15
Mine are just all over the place, but the kind of common vein with
23:18
them is hand drawn liveries that I draw on my iPad and stuff like that.
23:23
And yours are just so cool, like when we had our GR86 race, your
23:27
liveries, um, when we were at Okayama.
23:29
We're super cool with the, um, was that the Pizza Hut one?
23:33
That's what I'm thinking of, right?
23:35
Uh, was it Domino's?
23:36
The pizza one was for, um, the multi class one we did, uh, with SBR.
23:42
Or was the Barbie one your GRD?
23:44
So, yeah, and that one was from Trading Pains.
23:46
That was not mine.
23:46
I borrowed that one, but then I have, I currently, my 86 in iRacing
23:51
is the crash test dummy, uh, car.
23:53
I've got that one, so, which I really love.
23:55
I did make that one, you know, it's, uh, so a lot of mine.
23:58
Um, are kind of like nods to, you know, just things.
24:03
You know, in the past that are so crashed.
24:04
Just tell me toys.
24:05
Um, you know, the classic pizza, the team pizza that we did, um, uh, radio shack.
24:12
So we did, we did the F four, uh, was the last series we did.
24:17
So I did some radio shack, you know, throwing back to anyone
24:20
that knows or remembers that.
24:22
Um, yeah.
24:24
And, and, you know, for me, it's like, you know, I pick a theme and then
24:29
it's all right, how do I make this?
24:30
Like, if this was a legit, yeah.
24:32
You know, livery sponsor type thing.
24:34
You know, that's that's kind of my direction is, you know, it's not just
24:37
slapping on the logo because you can.
24:39
It's been working with the rest of the car and the branding of
24:43
the of the brand, the colors and all that and make it look like a.
24:48
You know, actual livery, actual sponsorship.
24:51
So yeah, super fun.
24:53
I think that's the really cool thing about sim racing is
24:55
you have all those liberties.
24:56
You can, I mean, you know, you can put any sponsor you want on there.
25:00
It's real or not.
25:02
And you get the choice to design a livery based off that, especially
25:05
you're doing stuff in your profession that translates directly to it.
25:09
And so you put together like such thoughtful designs that are really cool.
25:13
Mine are just like random pictures that I put on there, but.
25:15
You know, it's still really fun, and I think that you learn a lot, even though,
25:20
kind of like, you, you said you do this as your job full time, but it definitely
25:24
is different to use a set of courses of technology to make a library, and
25:28
also to do training paints for iRacing.
25:31
So, that's super cool, and something that, Um, you know, I think really makes
25:36
racing fun in general because well, like I was designed my very first season we
25:41
talked about that before and I think I've talked about this almost every episode,
25:44
but it was GT 500s and I made a Bulbasaur livery that just look like a Bulbasaur
25:50
and not livery is still like a my claim to fame livery, even though I came in
25:55
last place every single race that season.
25:57
That's what it's all about.
25:58
It's like, I was still having fun because I got to contribute
26:01
what I can contribute to my car.
26:03
And so people who come in and think that sim racing has to be, oh, you
26:06
got to be the best, you got to be, you know, the fastest person ever,
26:09
there's so much more to it than that.
26:10
And you can find a lot of enjoyment in, as you're learning, which
26:14
we'll talk about next, but, um, There's a ton you can do with it.
26:19
So speaking of learning, you and I talk a lot about how, because you know,
26:23
we're kind of rivals so to speak, like how do you, how are you getting faster?
26:27
What's working for you?
26:28
So talk a little bit about your journey and how you've learned to be faster and
26:32
what helps and what hasn't helped you.
26:35
Yeah, yeah.
26:36
Um, that has been definitely journey is a great word for that.
26:39
Um, you know, I think, uh, lap times are a fantastic quantitative
26:47
measure for your progress.
26:48
Right?
26:49
But I don't think it's always a very good 1 because.
26:53
It's, it's something easy to chase, but there's a lot of other elements
26:58
to, you know, to sim racing that, uh, are, are very important.
27:04
Um, and so it's, it's trying to figure out what those little things are along
27:10
the way, your braking technique, your, you know, throttle technique, your steering
27:14
technique, all these little things, um, your race craft, um, those things are
27:20
going to add up to those faster lap times.
27:23
And I think that's like.
27:25
You know, for me, at least it wasn't super easy to figure out.
27:29
Um, and I'm still figuring that out.
27:32
But, uh, yeah, it's just, you know, going along the way and, and
27:36
working on those little things.
27:37
Um, I think like for me, uh, as a, as a musician played
27:42
guitar, you know, I understand.
27:45
The value in, um, coaching and lessons and things like that.
27:50
So I kind of got to a point, especially being in the league.
27:53
Um, you know, I think going back to that whole lap time thing is like, you
27:57
know, I was definitely at the bottom of the league when I kind of came
27:59
in and, uh, you know, really had to.
28:04
Recognize that a lot of these others that were in the group have been
28:08
doing it for a very long time.
28:09
I mean, like, you know, I think like tens of years, potentially, some of these guys
28:13
and like, I've been doing it for at the time, you know, like months, if that.
28:18
And, you know, you really have to really, you know, kind of gut check yourself, say,
28:21
Hey, slow down, like you're just starting.
28:23
Um, but yeah, so eventually like I got to a point where I knew this was something
28:28
that I really enjoyed and wanted to, you know, continue at and get better at.
28:33
So I started looking into coaching and some things like that, um, you
28:37
know, and, and did some lessons, uh, some coaching here and there.
28:40
And that was super helpful and kind of helped those things I talked
28:43
about, like, you know, it's not just, you're not just going after lap times.
28:46
You need to work on.
28:47
The trail breaking you need to do this and this, um, as simple as
28:51
stop and watch a replay of your lab.
28:53
Like that is, yeah, that's so valuable, ridiculously valuable.
28:57
Um, and something I still don't do as much as I should, but you know,
29:01
little, all these little things there, it's just, uh, You know,
29:04
super helpful towards that growth.
29:06
Um, and, uh, so yeah, then just really being intentional.
29:09
And I think also, you know, you and I have had a lot of those conversations,
29:13
as you said, that helps to get somebody else, uh, you know, that you can, you
29:18
know, um, go along with and, and kind of pussy push each other, but also,
29:23
um, you know, work with each other too.
29:26
Yeah, all along the way, like, and so another thing to kind of, I know we
29:30
keep bringing it back to our league, but one thing that's cool about
29:32
our league is you're paired up with somebody, whether you want to be or not,
29:35
you're, you're in a team, they pick a team for you, or you pick your team.
29:38
So my teammate, um, we've been on the same team since I started in the
29:42
league, and it's always been, he's been my rival too, because he's always
29:47
faster than me every single time.
29:49
So I'm just trying to catch him and we share setups.
29:55
I, our league is very open about sharing setups and stuff, but I know
29:58
some is the more competitive you get, the less casual you get, the more
30:02
that's not really a thing, right?
30:03
You know, we're always sharing setups, talking to each other,
30:06
um, figuring things out together.
30:07
And so it's, it's great to have that teammate aspects of it too, because You
30:12
know, there's teams in our league that really go in all in on different pit stop
30:16
strategies and and all this stuff And so it really makes it fun and engaging
30:22
and having that teammate there to push you as a rival but also trying to get
30:25
championship points because That's a big thing about any community you have
30:29
to get people to be there every single week and something I think our league
30:32
is really good at is you want to be there at least I want to be there for
30:36
my teammate even if I don't feel like racing that night like There's been a
30:40
lot of times where I was like, man, I don't know if I really want to race.
30:43
Then I'm like, well, I really don't want our team to lose the championship because
30:47
I just didn't feel like showing up.
30:49
So I'd get in the rig and then we'd have a fun time anyway.
30:52
That's just another thing that makes sim racing so valuable and what you're saying
30:57
about watching laps back I think it's also really important to Save your laps
31:03
and then go back in a month six months a year and watch your lap again And you'll
31:07
be like who is this person driving?
31:10
Yeah, because I remember When I first started I don't even remember
31:14
what track it was, but I went back and I think it was Watkins I watched
31:19
that lap back later, and I was like, where did I think I was on track?
31:24
Because I wasn't using all the track at all, I was just totally losing time there.
31:29
And the more you grow in sim racing, the more you learn to recognize
31:32
those things, um, and kind of.
31:35
You know, see how you've improved, because the lap time is a good
31:38
indicator, but like you said, there's a lot more to it than that.
31:42
Um, the different braking things you can do, the different, even steering
31:46
angle, all that kind of stuff, and it can be really helpful to have a coach
31:49
just to point those things out to you, but there's a lot of resources online,
31:53
too, that you and I have dove into, and did you find this video helpful?
31:57
Did you find this class helpful?
31:59
Stuff like that, so.
32:01
Yeah, and yeah, there's definitely lots of good free resources out there.
32:05
Um, you know, and and I think it could be a little bit overwhelming
32:09
too, because everyone has their own take on this stuff, you know, and
32:12
and so, um, you know, but I think you can get pretty far with that stuff.
32:16
And and I think like.
32:18
You know, just trying to find a league in general is definitely going to help out.
32:22
Um, I'd imagine most leagues are going to be really helpful, you know, from a
32:25
community standpoint, I was definitely, I remember, I think like race one, uh,
32:31
you know, gotten an incident was we were watching the replays like, Hey
32:34
guys, did I do something wrong here?
32:35
And it was just, you know, it wasn't really me.
32:37
It was just kind of, you know, a crowded field at the corner.
32:41
But, um, yeah, you know, I think everyone's willing to, uh.
32:45
You know, be helpful in that regard and and help each other grow because
32:49
I think at the end of the day, we all want good close racing, right?
32:53
Like, it's no fun if the entire field is spread out and we're just laughing, right?
32:56
We want to race with each other.
32:58
Um, and as I have grown on.
33:00
Uh, in my skill level and gotten closer to the pack, the fun like has skyrocketed.
33:05
It's so much more, more fun, you know, and, and so it's,
33:08
it's all, we all want that.
33:09
We want everyone to, you know, enjoy it because if you're not enjoying it,
33:12
you're also not going to really want to come out and, you know, play every week.
33:17
So for sure.
33:18
And I'll say for the different screen to speed events that I've been in, we've
33:22
had a lot of really close racing and it's really cool because it seems like
33:25
there's a bunch of separate little packs.
33:27
And in our league, I'm used to being like, You know, like we said,
33:30
those guys have been racing for 10 years, and I definitely have not.
33:34
So, being able to race in the front of the pack with people who, you know, we have
33:38
people in the different screen to speed events that have also been on iRacing for
33:42
10 years, that, you know, you're fighting against all these people with all this
33:45
wealth of experience, and I also think something we haven't really touched on,
33:50
um, but we've mentioned, is when you're racing with people, you know, you go to
33:55
a rookie race in iRacing, and everyone's a rookie, most people, It's a completely
34:00
different kind of race than when you know exactly how people are going to race,
34:04
and you can actually do that close racing because, you know, even though they're
34:09
way faster than you, you learn a lot from people who are, you know, faster, but
34:13
maybe slower today because they missed their pit stop or something bad happened,
34:16
and And you kind of see how close they're willing to play it with you, and you
34:21
build trust with each other on track.
34:22
So, raising the same people every week is also extremely valuable for that, too.
34:28
But we can kind of get into, uh, another thing that you and I have also done.
34:32
So, sim racing can be useful for learning other things as well.
34:35
And one of those being language learning, of all things.
34:39
Um, so you and I are both studying Italian, and I mean, I've done the
34:44
thing where I changed my race engineer on iRacing to Italian, and it's a
34:49
really interesting, it almost feels like immersion, at least it did for
34:53
me, um, so I think you've done the same thing as well, so do you want to talk
34:57
a little bit about your, your language learning experience through SimRacing?
35:00
Yeah, absolutely.
35:01
So, um, I think, like, just, I've always wanted to learn a language.
35:05
I did Spanish back in high school, it never really stuck, um, and then,
35:11
Just for some reason, uh, you know, recently, uh, I think kind of talking
35:15
to you, uh, you know, Before or after one of the races, it's like, you know
35:19
what, actually, I think I'm gonna, you know, try and give it a shot again.
35:22
And Italian's always been one that I've had an interest in, um, so I
35:26
just, you know, dove in, uh, you know, doing the Duolingo route and
35:30
stuff like that and, and other things.
35:31
And my wife is, is learning along with me, um, which is great.
35:35
But yeah, I think like, you know, the immersion side of it, uh, from a
35:39
learning standpoint is very helpful.
35:41
Um, with crew chief, one of the other, um, you know, crew chief, uh, programs
35:47
that you can get, uh, for a set of course and whatnot, I, there was an
35:51
Italian version out there, but I think like the audio quality wasn't great.
35:55
So it was, it was a little distracting.
35:57
Um, and then I don't know why I think I was changing my, I was looking at
36:02
the crew chief settings in iRacing.
36:04
Um, one day and I noticed, uh, you know, I had different options and I don't
36:09
know why I thought this, but at the time I was like, oh, this is an Italian
36:12
accent, English, English speaking, but I don't know why, like, I thought that,
36:17
so I turned it on and then the thing is, um, it doesn't change right away.
36:22
You actually have to close out and back in, so it didn't change.
36:25
I'm like, all right, whatever carried on next time, load up the
36:28
SIM and then it's full on Italian.
36:30
And I'm like, oh, okay, we're, we're in this.
36:32
Um, but it's like, no, this is fine.
36:34
And so, you know, the thing with, with that, with the crew chief to
36:40
help you is it can't, it's very repetitive, you know, when you're
36:44
driving around, you know, machina a la destra, you know, cars to the, to
36:49
the right, or sinestra to the left.
36:51
And you hear that stuff over and over again, and, you
36:54
know, it just helps you learn.
36:55
Um, you know, those phrases and things I actually dug into the
36:59
phrase list, uh, in the back end.
37:02
It's massive.
37:03
It's like thousands and thousands of lines, uh, which is very cool.
37:07
But numbers is another thing because he's always shouting out, uh, lap times.
37:12
So yeah, there's, there's a lot of things there.
37:14
Um, it's just one little thing.
37:17
Yeah.
37:17
I had, I jumped into an actual race and like you said, I originally
37:22
had an English speaking accent.
37:24
Yeah.
37:24
Engineer, race engineer, and then when I restarted my iRacing, I had
37:27
changed it to Italian and forgot.
37:29
Jumped into, I think it was a PCC race, and all of a sudden, like,
37:34
and my Italian's pretty good, but my racing Italian is not great.
37:38
And so I'm, I'm driving, and I had a spotter for the race, English speaking
37:43
spotter, and I was like, Man, he's really insistent about this one thing,
37:47
and my spotter was like, I think he's saying that you're out of fuel.
37:51
Like, I don't know much Italian, but I remember hearing that.
37:53
And I was like, really?
37:54
You think so?
37:55
Sure enough, ran out of fuel.
37:57
Oh, man.
37:58
But I think that's good because, you know, people always say when you go to a
38:01
foreign country and you have to learn the language, that's the best way to learn it.
38:04
Or to take a class in that language.
38:07
And when you're racing and you actually need to understand what
38:09
they're saying to understand what's going to happen to your car.
38:13
Kind of simulates that as well.
38:15
Um, you know, I'm not going to say that I'm fluent in Thai at
38:17
all, but I am working on it.
38:18
And when you're able to understand what they're saying, kind of what you're
38:21
saying, like, cars to the right, cars to the left, the times and all that
38:24
stuff, you pick up more than you realize.
38:26
So, yeah, definitely have been there with accidental things.
38:31
Yeah, super cool.
38:32
But there's, I mean, there's a handful of languages on there.
38:34
So, you know, I forget what, um, you know, I don't know which all are on
38:40
there, but I know there's a handful.
38:41
So, you know.
38:42
One little extra thing out there for that.
38:45
You know that.
38:45
Simracing could offer, yeah.
38:47
Yeah, absolutely.
38:48
And definitely a unique one that, because I originally thought about it
38:52
because I used to, when I wanted to learn Italian, Assassin's Creed 2 was the game.
38:57
So that was all Renaissance Italy.
38:58
So I changed my game audio to Italian to try and learn it.
39:02
Which is kind of the same, but not really, because you don't, you
39:05
could figure it out even without.
39:07
Understanding the words, but in racing, when they're telling you
39:10
you're out of fuel and you don't understand it, yeah, you need to learn.
39:14
I have not run into that yet, but that's, that's definitely crossed my mind of like,
39:19
I don't know enough on that stuff yet.
39:21
You know, I'm, I'm learning the flags.
39:23
So yeah, and the era Bianca is white flag.
39:26
Like I know that stuff.
39:27
I'm learning that.
39:29
Uh, and then obviously car to the left or right, or if it's oval inside
39:33
outside, um, you know, learning a lot of that stuff that you hear a lot.
39:37
But yeah, if there's.
39:39
Uh, damage, I get the gist in a lot of his contacts like,
39:43
Oh, I just was in a big wreck.
39:44
I know he's telling me my car is screwed up, but I don't know specifically.
39:48
So yeah, yeah.
39:49
It's super little, you know, little extra thing there that, that it offers.
39:53
So becoming fluent in Italian is a goal for you, of course, but in
39:57
sim racing specifically, what's the goal that you have there and
40:02
how are you working toward it?
40:04
Yeah.
40:04
That's a great question.
40:05
Um, I don't know if there's like a hard goal.
40:10
Uh, it's just like continuously improving.
40:12
Um, I think, you know, in being more competitive, um, is definitely the goal.
40:19
And that's kind of like with playing guitar, I will never master the guitar.
40:25
Like, there's just way too many genres, styles, et cetera, um, you know.
40:32
I've been playing for a long time.
40:33
I, I feel like I'm a very skilled, you know, player, but I know there's still so
40:39
much more out there, um, you know, cause like you've got that learning curve that
40:43
shoots up and then it, it tapers off.
40:45
It still can grow, but it's going to taper off and, uh, you know, I don't
40:51
know if I'm hitting that taper yet, but, uh, you know, I've definitely seen a lot
40:55
of growth and, uh, you know, I'm still want to keep pushing that, um, I rating.
41:00
Um, I go back and forth every time of like worrying about that
41:03
and not worrying about that.
41:04
Um, you know, because it, it kind of is a measure, uh, but I don't know if it's
41:09
an amazing measure of your skill level because there's so many other factors.
41:13
Um, I think like, that's why the league, like you were talking about
41:15
the consistency with the league is that, you know, I know where a lot
41:20
of these other guys are at and, um, you know, not like, like, I think.
41:25
A lot of them, some of them may be hitting that plateau, you know, like,
41:30
like, there's only so much better you can get, you know, I'm sure there are
41:33
still ways to improve, but, um, you know, eventually it's the, the gains
41:39
are going to be so small, um, that I'll have more opportunity to catch up.
41:44
And I also feel like in our league, you can in a league in general, like I racing.
41:50
You can beat a guy who has a 4K eye rating or something, which just feels
41:53
really good if you're a 2K eye rating.
41:55
But in our league, when you've had the blood, sweat, and tears going into a race,
41:59
and you beat the guy who's usually mid pack or something, and, and you can just
42:04
take that one victory, and it's like so cool, and there's just nothing that kind
42:09
of beats that, when you've been fighting against the same person for a long time.
42:13
And like you said, it is a measure of skill, because you
42:15
know how good these people are, and it can help you kind of see.
42:20
I don't know how good you are in the real world, so to speak, because I feel like
42:24
the guys who are really good in our league are also really good in every other sim.
42:27
So if you ever, like, beat them, it's like, man, maybe I'm
42:31
getting kind of good at this.
42:32
Because we have people in our league who, uh, we have a top three finalist for, um,
42:37
APAC for the Ferrari Esports Series in our league, and he races all the time.
42:41
Thomas Wilson.
42:42
We have guys who have done, they do real track stuff and all that stuff.
42:46
So.
42:47
Never assume that your league is just, you know, people who sit at their computer
42:51
all the time because most of us have car experience somewhere and you really
42:55
never know who you're going to find that, that has that real life experience that
43:00
you're also kind of competing against.
43:01
Because again, sim racing, I mean, I can speak for myself, having
43:06
driven sports cars around track.
43:08
It does teach you how to drive the car better.
43:11
So, um, oh yeah, and Tariq just brought up Shane.
43:14
Uh, he was a driver.
43:15
I think he was before your time, Todd.
43:17
Right.
43:17
Um, Shane did the TCR, it was TCR World Challenge, I believe, and he
43:22
flew, he got flown to the Netherlands to race that car instead of Corsa, um,
43:26
and he's a phenomenal driver as well.
43:29
So that's the cool things, you know, we never would have met each other
43:33
except through our league and we have people racing in Australia and Europe
43:37
and Canada and we can all race together every Monday night and, and compete.
43:41
So, um, yeah, internet friends are the best.
43:45
I, like, it's.
43:47
You know, I, I have a little bit of social anxiety, um, you know, definitely
43:53
kind of a, uh, I forget which way it goes, but like, uh, extroverted
43:59
introvert, I think it is, you know, I, I can be extroverted, but definitely,
44:03
you know, introverted is my home base.
44:05
Um, but anyway, you know, coming into this group of new people that
44:09
I don't know, especially where, as I said before, like, I don't want to
44:12
be screwing up their fun, their races because I'm new, um, but super welcoming.
44:18
And then as you just like, start to learn about each other and, and
44:21
what everyone does and, and, uh, it's just, it's just super cool.
44:25
Like, like the experiences that everyone has and, um, you know,
44:29
like your journey and your career and whatnot is just super awesome.
44:33
And, and, uh, you know, it's just really neat to, to learn about that beyond
44:37
just the racing that we do once a week.
44:40
Yeah.
44:40
Yeah, absolutely.
44:41
Absolutely.
44:42
Um, so let's see, something that you've, I feel like, it's interesting
44:47
that you say that you don't feel like you're an extrovert, you're kind of
44:50
an extrovert introvert, because you've been so good at creating things in
44:54
our league and really kind of holding the banner, so to speak, to find other
45:00
ways for us to race with each other.
45:03
Um, an example of that is our league primarily races in Sotocorsa, but we
45:07
also now do iRacing kind of fun races every week that you primarily host.
45:13
Um, what made you decide to kind of dive more into the administrative
45:18
part, and do you find that enjoyable?
45:20
It seems like you do, because you're really good at hosting it, but can
45:22
you talk a little bit about that?
45:24
Yeah.
45:24
Um, I'm, uh, I'm the oldest of four.
45:27
So I'm the oldest.
45:27
So I think, uh, you know, for our, our oldest children out there, I think
45:32
you understand that, that I've always kind of been once, uh, organized and
45:36
take care of and things like that.
45:37
So I think that's a role that I kind of slip into.
45:40
And, um, you know, it's also, You know, admittedly, you know, maybe a
45:45
little selfishness that like, I'm, I'm putting together something, uh,
45:49
to fuel the social needs that I have.
45:52
Right.
45:52
Like I want to, you know, race together another night of the week.
45:56
And, uh, you know, I'm happy to put that together.
45:58
Um, and, uh, you know, it's a good time.
46:02
So, uh, yeah, yeah.
46:03
Just another thing to, to put together and happy to, to do so.
46:08
What's, what's the learning curve been for that part of it, because I have tried
46:12
to host stuff before on iRacing and I actually called you to help me figure
46:16
it out because it's really overwhelming, but I think it's something that people,
46:21
like, one thing that's great about our league and great about all these
46:24
different esports competitions is The administrative side of it is a huge piece
46:29
of the puzzle, and you want to be able to have these things where, you know, are
46:34
we going to have a server that's up every single time we're racing, all this stuff?
46:37
Can you talk a little bit about how you had to learn all that
46:40
stuff and how that happened?
46:41
Yeah, yeah, um.
46:44
You know, I think, like, there just became more chatter about iRacing
46:48
in general, uh, within the group.
46:51
And, um, you know, and then especially when I, when I got into it, uh, you
46:55
know, it's like, all right, there's, there's a good handful of people here.
47:00
Um, you know.
47:01
Let's see if there's some interest for, you know, having some races and, um,
47:05
you know, so my first hosting attempt was actually for a birthday race.
47:09
I did, um, you know, kind of circling back to the, uh, oval racing, um, the
47:16
free trucks, the legacy craftsman truck at Charlotte, I was like, this is a blast.
47:21
This is what I want to do.
47:22
I want to do this truck race.
47:23
Um, so I was like, all right, this is going to be, we're going to gauge.
47:27
You know, one, I wanted to just put the event on it, but then two, it was like
47:30
to gauge the interest within the group to see if we had enough, you know, people
47:34
in interest to maybe do this regularly.
47:36
Um, cause of course, we were always going to have Mondays on a set of Corsa and that
47:40
was going to, you know, kind of stick.
47:43
Um, so I think, I think we actually did a race beforehand though, before
47:48
the truck race, uh, as an earlier test.
47:50
And, uh, one of the other members had kind of set that one up, but,
47:54
um, yeah, so like, as far as like the actual nuts and bolts of that.
47:58
It's still been a learning process.
48:01
We're, we're constantly me and the other, um, Vegeta, the other, uh,
48:06
individual that generally hosts as well.
48:08
We kind of trade back and forth.
48:09
We're constantly like talking about setting stuff up and like, all
48:12
right, how do we do it this week?
48:13
How do we do it that week?
48:15
You know, this setting, that setting, um, you know, we were talking before
48:18
coming on here about the caution fiasco we had at, you know, last night.
48:22
Cause there's just something with the track we think and, uh, managing all that.
48:26
So I think like Once you get one or two under your belt, though,
48:30
it's pretty straightforward.
48:32
Um, you know, luckily, iRacing makes it very easy.
48:35
It's just kind of like a checkbox.
48:37
You go down the list and, and you, you know, do that.
48:40
And, um, you know, that's pretty good.
48:42
I think, like, the one thing I learned, like, in the truck race I did, I think
48:44
I had the temperature way too hot.
48:46
So the track was super hot.
48:47
Right, yeah.
48:49
I'm like, I've ran this race a ton of times.
48:51
Why am I out of control?
48:53
And, you know, it's just a lesson learned that, okay, pay
48:56
attention to your temperatures and weather and stuff like that.
48:59
Yeah, yeah.
49:01
I mean, I think that it comes into driving as well because.
49:04
You know, if you, if you do it from the hosting side and all of a sudden the,
49:07
the track temperature is 150 degrees and you can't drive, you're like, oh,
49:10
and then when you notice something later when you're actually driving,
49:13
like, oh, the temperatures are hotter, that's how it's going to affect the car.
49:16
Like we did when we did our mini IMSA series, I think it
49:19
was what, two, two seasons ago?
49:21
Um, yeah, Daytona, which is, you know, typically a pretty cold race.
49:26
And if you were practicing in normal Florida, sunny weather and in the
49:30
summertime, and then you went to Daytona for our race on the server,
49:34
it was a very different time for you.
49:36
Ask me how I know, but it's just stuff like that, where
49:40
you can learn through that.
49:41
And I always tell people, you know, a lot of people who do sim racing,
49:46
people love the driving and whatever.
49:48
But if you're somebody who's, who enjoys kind of the, the spreadsheets and the
49:53
admin aspects of it, which, I mean, I kind of enjoy that kind of stuff too, even for
49:57
my own driving, I have my own spreadsheets for times and stuff like that, but if
50:01
that's something that interests you, don't up with Be afraid to join a league
50:07
or create your own league, honestly, and yeah, and see how admin stuff works and
50:11
do that because they're anything from livery design to administrative stuff.
50:16
There's so much that's needed to build the community and like, that's what we're
50:21
building within it, too, is having a bunch of women and allies coming together to
50:26
host these races to do all these things.
50:28
And there's all kinds of people needed to do that.
50:30
And it really takes a village.
50:31
I mean, I think our league is, it's a perfect example of that, too.
50:34
It's.
50:35
We have a lot of people who dedicate a lot of time to this, and the more you get into
50:41
the behind the scenes, you realize just how much time those people are putting
50:45
into it, and we all do it for the love of the esports, so to speak, and the real
50:50
thing, so, I don't know, I just love it.
50:53
Yeah, there's a lot of, there was a lot of times where, you know, I want, as
50:58
I said, I want to stretch my creative wings, and so I'd reach out to the
51:01
admins, you know, Jedi or Vegeta.
51:04
Say hey this or that and like they're so on top of that more
51:07
than I would have realized and like yeah And you guys are awesome.
51:09
Like the stuff you were doing is amazing.
51:11
And You know, that's so cool to see and because like, you know I'm just kind of
51:15
going into it blind and you know, you got to ask those questions to know but
51:19
Yeah, it's just super cool to see as you said all the work that goes into it and
51:23
and what it takes to kind Of keep that stuff and that was you know, kind of
51:27
going back to like some other leagues I think like That's the other thing, too,
51:31
is, is there's stuff that just runs so well and it's so organized, um, you know,
51:37
there's some others that I had checked out that was just, and I tried to introduce.
51:41
You know, some of the concepts and it was just like, no, they didn't want that.
51:44
We're just this kind of free for all.
51:46
It's like, oh, okay, well, you know, I'm going to go back to my beloved SBR.
51:51
Yeah.
51:52
And I think that, you know, that's something if you, you have to, what
51:57
you want out of a league is you want everyone to show up all the time.
52:00
You want everyone to be motivated.
52:01
You want everyone to be competitive, clean racing, stuff like that.
52:04
And you really have to present the league that way and maintain the league that way.
52:10
And it's, it's way harder.
52:11
It's like anything else.
52:12
It's just like driving, like.
52:13
You have to learn how to handle, you know, a server, not just a server on
52:19
a set of courses, but like a Discord server or something like that,
52:21
and have communication between the team, because it is a team effort.
52:25
So, there's just all kinds of things to Simracing, just like
52:28
any kind of esport in general.
52:30
Um, or, Tabletop games, stuff like that, where you're getting people
52:34
together all the time, like, there's a lot of commitment involved and
52:37
there just has to be mutual respect between the drivers and the admins and
52:41
I think another thing that's cool is our league is very good at, you know,
52:48
when problems arise or something, it's all dealt with in a very nitty gritty.
52:52
Professional way and we all know exactly what's going to happen if something
52:56
bad happens or something and everyone's everyone's just so cool So I could talk
53:00
about our league forever, but um, you know, and it's cool to see other leagues
53:05
Sprouting just in eSports in general because sim racing is is expanding so
53:10
much and what they're doing including stuff like screen to speed And having
53:16
these events where you're getting people to show up every time and that's a,
53:20
that's a huge thing in itself, even if you're only getting Five to 10
53:24
people to show up every single race.
53:25
Like that's five or 10 people around the world that are, that are dedicating
53:28
their evening to this though.
53:30
It's, it's just a cool thing.
53:31
I don't know.
53:31
I could, I could talk about it.
53:34
Absolutely.
53:34
Yeah.
53:35
Um, so yeah, uh, let's, let's wrap it up here.
53:39
Cause we are getting close to time, but I just kind of wanted to open
53:45
the floor to you a little bit.
53:46
What do you see the future of sim racing looking like maybe for you,
53:50
maybe for anyone, um, and what would you say to someone who's
53:53
thinking about starting driving?
53:55
Yeah, absolutely.
53:56
Um, I think, uh, you know, one I won't talk on this too much.
54:02
But, um, this so this season with S. P. R. I'm not driving.
54:06
Actually, it's just a car.
54:08
I didn't want to drive.
54:10
But something that I've wanted to do for a while now is kind of broadcast the race.
54:15
And, uh, you know, this.
54:17
There's a shorter season.
54:18
So it's like, this is the perfect opportunity.
54:20
I'm going to take a break from driving and I'm going to, you know,
54:22
I'm going to produce a broadcast.
54:24
I'm going to call the races, commentate, uh, you know, It allowed
54:28
me to do, you know, like the overlays, the graphics and all that stuff.
54:31
So that, that stuff, that's fun to me.
54:33
And then, yeah, so we've been streaming that and I went in the first one, super
54:36
nervous and then got right into it and it, it just kind of rolled really well.
54:40
It turned out great.
54:41
I was gonna say, it's a blast.
54:42
It was a great stream.
54:42
I gotta say running challenge.
54:44
Yeah, it was super fun.
54:45
And um, yeah, it was just a great experience to do that.
54:49
And I think it turned out well and, uh.
54:52
You know, I'm, I'll be sad that like, I can't do it again.
54:56
I'll have to see if there's, you know, one another series, cause I want to drive,
54:58
like, I, you know, I do want to drive, but that was good, you know, good fun.
55:02
But my point there, I think is, you know, not like getting into driving,
55:06
but I think just, you know, I'd say getting into sim racing as a.
55:10
You know, hobby.
55:12
Um, there's a lot of different opportunities there.
55:14
Like, you know, the commentating, um, maybe you maybe you want to get
55:18
into broadcasting professionally.
55:20
Like, this is, you know, that could be a potential pathway.
55:23
Maybe you want to get into, uh, you know, into the auto industry or motor
55:28
sports worlds, um, you know, managing.
55:31
Uh, you know, the fleets of cars or the teams or something, you know,
55:35
there's probably a lot of avenues that could, you know, stem off from this.
55:40
Um, you know, so don't think that you, you have to sit in a chair behind
55:44
a wheel, um, to, to be involved.
55:47
Uh, I think there's a lot of, uh, potential other things
55:50
that you could go after.
55:51
Um, and I think, uh, yeah.
55:53
You know, so the question about, you know, where is it going to go?
55:55
I think it is going to keep growing.
55:57
Um, you know, it's very cool to see the growth in it and just how it's blown up.
56:04
Um, and.
56:06
The production values, I think, are just continuing.
56:09
There was something I saw that, uh, I forget who the company is, unfortunately.
56:14
Um, but they do, I think they're like the main provider of, um, iRacing
56:17
broadcasting, uh, elements and add ons and things, and there was this
56:22
preview of a pre race starting grid that had these animated cars.
56:26
It was the coolest thing ever, you know?
56:28
Yeah!
56:28
And, uh, it just, little, these little details, but like, like I said, you
56:32
know, I can watch an iRacing event on Twitch or YouTube or whatever, Bye And
56:36
it's as good, if not sometimes better than the actual series you watch on TV.
56:42
And, um, you know, so that side is super cool.
56:45
Um, but always for, for the drivers out there, the potential drivers out
56:49
there, uh, Just dive in, I think is, you know, the, the simple, potentially
56:56
cliche advice, but, uh, you know, get in and, and, um, yeah, you
57:00
know, just, just try it out and, uh,
57:05
see how it goes.
57:06
Yeah, and I would say, um, to women watching, I know
57:10
it can be very intimidating.
57:12
Trust me.
57:13
Joining our league for the first time was so intimidating, but that's what
57:17
we're talking about with community is if you find a community like
57:20
in it or screen to speed where.
57:22
You know that you're going to be with people who are going to
57:25
advocate for you, who aren't going to bash you or anything like that.
57:29
Like, what our league does, they teach you right from wrong.
57:33
If you're somebody who's being crazy on track, you're going
57:35
to get called out for it.
57:37
Um, Rest assured, you will be called out for it, and it helps you learn,
57:41
because I feel like you learn better when you're racing against people
57:45
that are actually your friends.
57:46
You don't want to ruin their race, you don't, it's not some
57:48
random person behind the screen.
57:50
Um, and yeah, it will be intimidating.
57:52
My first race ever, I was shaking so much.
57:55
so hard at my rig.
57:56
I don't know how your race was, but I was scared to death.
57:59
Uh, my first time ever doing a coaching session, same thing.
58:02
I was scared to death.
58:03
Even after racing for three years in a set of course with our league, doing my
58:07
first rookie race in iRacing, shaking all over the place, freaking out.
58:11
And that's what's cool about it.
58:13
Like, you're just sitting at your computer, really, with a fake
58:16
wheel in your hand, but it's real.
58:18
Um, and I do think that kind of what you're talking about, you really can take
58:23
so much from sim racing into the real world in ways you would never expect,
58:27
like creating those animation graphics, broadcasting, even just learning, like,
58:33
I don't know very much about setup still, but what I do know, it has been helpful in
58:38
my career now entering into the motorsport world, but currently working in the
58:42
automotive world from the manufacturer's side, Just understanding what a car
58:47
chassis is and how it can affect things is so valuable and you can learn that.
58:53
Instead of just watching YouTube videos about it, like you're learning it because
58:56
you're using it in the sim racing world.
58:59
So I don't really know that there's any other sports or professions really where
59:04
you can get that access and the ability to kind of do whatever you want with it.
59:10
So.
59:11
Right.
59:12
Yeah.
59:13
And you get hooked too.
59:14
Like you said, you definitely get hooked and you know, makes it all the better.
59:18
So Todd, thank you so much for being on my final regularly scheduled Anatomica.
59:24
Um, it has been so great having you.
59:27
Always a pleasure to talk to you and hear your insight on everything.
59:31
Um, and I really look forward to our next season racing and how it goes.
59:37
Absolutely.
59:37
Thank you so much for having me.
59:39
I, you know, glad to be here to do this, uh, with you and, uh,
59:43
have a chat and, uh, yeah, hope to maybe do another one down the road.
59:46
Uh, but yes, definitely look forward to.
59:49
You know, I'm trading, uh, trading some paint on the, uh, in the sim.
59:54
It'll be great.
59:55
All right.
59:55
Thank you, Todd, so much, everyone watching.
59:57
Thanks for joining us this evening.
59:59
SVR folks, thanks for hanging out with us, including everyone else.
1:00:03
And we will catch you next time.
1:00:05
So thank you.
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