I am not a car guy.
At least that use to be the case. I came to this addiction later in life.
Serendipity is a bitch.
About three years ago, bored enough to find myself cleaning up my home office, I ran across a disc (a "free" disc, mind you, but is anything really free?) for Dirt 3 that I had received several months before with a new graphics card.
What the heck, I loaded it up. It was free after all...
For those of you who are unfamiliar with racing simulations, Dirt 3 is a rally car game. I was hooked from the beginning. It was a little difficult to play with the keyboard, but the graphics were insane.
That led to a steering wheel, gear shift and pedals; more insanity as the immersion of the gameplay began to fuel the addiction. Rally racing is about time - i.e., using less of it to get from point A to point B. ("Who cares if it's midnight. I think I figured out how to take that corner faster this time... and not wrap the car around that tree just beyond the ditch.)
Then came an introduction to iRacing.com.
Then came a standalone "rig" or "cockpit" with a dedicated computer, three 27 inch monitors, much better steering wheel, pedals and various accessories.
iRacing is a true simulation of wheel to wheel racing on various tracks in various cars with various people from all over the world. The tracks are laser scanned at a resolution claimed to be within 2mm of the real thing.
Fascinating.
Did I mention the immersion factor?
I was happy with a simulation of what Ernest Hemingway considered one of the three true sports.
That was until I introduced a friend to my addiction. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this friend was a refugee from the Texas racing culture. While he was somewhat impressed with the state of simulated racing, he quickly pointed out that for the same amount of money I had invested in this diversion, a real race car could be acquired and I could join the ranks of true sportsmen (at least according to Hemingway.)
Off to Skip Barber Racing School at Road Atlanta!
I should have known. The first day we were assigned a partner that we would share a race car with for the next 3 days. My partner was a fellow of similar age who was attending with his college age son. We chatted about why we were here. I told him I just wanted to see what it was all about; thought I would probably never go any further.
He laughed.
This was his second experience at Road Atlanta with Skip Barber. A year prior he had attended a one day introductory course. A Porsche track car, a trailer and thirty track days later he was back for more.
"This is going to cost you a lot more than you realize."
He was right.
