Looking Back, Moving Forward

When I started this sim racing journey several months ago, I did so kind of as an experiment. I had heard of Forza Motorsport 7, Asseto Corso Competizion, and iRacing, but I had never played any of them. Several years ago, I played around with Forza Motorsports 5, but that was the extent of my knowledge of sim racing.

Fast forward a few months, and I just handily won a B class championship in Forza Motorsports 7. Winning is always good, but the truth is that this championship came too easily. I wanted to win, but I didn’t want to win by so much. In the end, the racing wasn’t as realistic as I had hoped, and neither were the results.

Part of that was the nature of Forza Motorsports 7. It’s a challenging, exciting game, but it’s still a game. It’s not a true simulation. Things happen in Forza 7 that don’t happen in real life. On the opening lap in real races, cars do not come to a dead stop in turn one. They don’t slow unexpectedly for no reason during races. Gravity and real-world physics apply to car-to-car contact. But as I said, Forza Motorsports 7 is a game, and to expect it to be anything other than a game is unrealistic.

Much of the blame for the unrealistic nature of my first sim racing season is on me. I didn’t fully understand the nature of the racing in Forza 7, and I didn’t understand the settings. For instance, I started the Drivatar skill level much too low. I jacked it up to Pro during the season, but the damage was already done. I also chose the “fuel and tires” damage setting, which only allowed for cosmetic damage, fuel consumption, and tire degradation. Early in the season, I didn’t like the “simulated” damage, which allows for full cosmetic and mechanical damage, as well as fuel consumption and tire degradation. In hindsight, I think “simulated” damage may have been more realistic, and had I used it, would have significantly changed the season.

The good news is, lessons were learned. I understand the game much better now, understand the settings, and, as a result, my expectations are much more realistic. That should be very helpful as we move forward to season two.

So, what can we look forward to? If you followed along in season number one, you know that the storyline involved me living out my dream of traveling the country, race car in tow, visiting race venues from the east coast to the west, racing at a different location every week or two. My dream was realized, and now it’s time to work on a new dream, albeit in a virtual world.

When I started racing in real life, I was fortunate to meet several people who were living their lives as professional race car drivers. People like Randy Pobst, Andy Pilgrim, Sylvain Tremblay, Kelly Collins, David Donahue, Buzz Caulkins, and others. I wanted what they had. I wanted to be a professional race car driver.

That never happened. I was already in my thirties when I started racing, so compared to a lot of drivers, I was already over the hill. I had a job, a wife, a mortgage. Becoming a professional race car driver wasn’t the responsible thing to do. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t want it.

Now, after having won a Forza Motorsports 7 “B class” championship, it’s my chance to become a pro…virtually. I’m heading out on an international tour to drive a BMW M4 GTS in the Sport Touring (A class) Championship. I’ll visit 17 different racetracks, running sprint races, a few doubleheaders, and four 100 mile endurance races. That makes up the championship. In addition, I’ll be driving a BMW M8 GTE in four 90-minute endurance races in the United States. I might pick up another race here and there. You never know what I might end up driving. Afterall, I’m a pro.

We’ll be sticking with Forza Motorsports 7 this season. It’s not ideal, but it can be a lot of fun. I can already feel myself wanting to experiment with other games, but that will have to wait until season three. For season two, we’re all in with Forza.

Here’s the schedule for season two:

               Circuit                                                               Race Format