It's December, it's already too cold for Motorsports and it's only going to get colder. In Tennessee, they held the 25 hours of Thunderhill this past weekend, and in all the pictures and videos I saw, people were wearing winter coats over their race suits. That is a hard pass for me. It's too cold to be at a race track this time of year. I suppose if you live in Florida or California it may be warm enough, but living in those states you have other issues to worry about, like face-eating freaks high on bath salts and on the other coast, emissions laws. I shudder just thinking about those types of things. It really gives me the creeps. Anyways, right now, in the midwest, it's too cold for racing, and that brings up the question that this edition of Hittin The Apex will cover, which is what the hell do we do in the winter? Well folks, there is only one answer available, Simulated Racing. All other options are not good ones. Ice racing, rallycross, rallying and indoor karting are all dumb. Having said that, it would be wise to have the disclaimer we have her at HTA, which simply states "I don't care if my opinion goes against yours. I have my opinions, you have yours and it isn't my fault your wrong". Back to the matter at hand. If you don’t want to be dumb, get a simulator. There are so many options for simulators, there really is no excuse not to get one. The basics start with video games for the same Xbox or Playstation your kid is spending all their time on. As a matter of fact, I suggest you figure out which game system your kid has, go find a game that you like and has the tracks that you would want to drive on, buy it, come home, kick your kid off the console out into the cold to play or whatever, take the game into your room and have at it! Anyone in your house that protests these acts clearly doesn't support you, and as such they don't deserve your attention. If you are thinking about a higher level of simulator, you and I have just one more thing in common my friend. I have visions of a simulator setup that has an actual racing seat, steering wheels, pedals and a shifter, with at least three screens hooked up to a real deal simulation site like iRacing. Seriously, check out iRacing, I will wait. It's pretty badass isn’t? Virtually any U.S. track is available, with the ability to compete in sanctioned races with other drivers such as yourself without having to leave your home! Short of really racing a car, it doesn't get any better than that. Ever have dreams of driving down the front straight of Road America, hitting top gear while your puppy is sitting in your lap? That's weird, but now you can do it without the dangers of Scruffy jumping out to chase a squirrel! What better way to hone your driving skills then spending hours running lap after lap of (insert your favorite available track here) without having to travel, prep a car, pay the entry fees, get a hotel room or have minimal consequences by running off the road? There isn't a better way, I googled it. Many amateur and even professional drivers log hundreds if not thousands of hours on simulators, just to fine tune their skills. Now, I am not going to suggest a manufacturer of a simulator or brand of computer to use, mostly because I don't know for sure what is best and no one pays me to promote. If anyone would like me to promote something I am available for just about anything they want to give me. I will say though, do your homework, ask a racer, get on the forums and check it out. Something relatively new that I think is very cool is that SCCA actually sanctions an iRacing league with different series in it, that requires you to be an SCCA member, thereby giving some sort of standard so people won't be out there wrecking everybody's race. Like your kid would do. Or you would do. Don’t lie. Simulating in a league like iRacing takes out the AI drivers of video games and puts you in a real, virtual race against other people in their basements with their dogs on their laps. This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to honing your real driving skills in the winter. You can be dumb and look for lost lugnuts with frozen fingers in the snow or be smart and drive Laguna in your underwear in your warm basement. The choice is yours.
Until next month!
