Have Your Say: Tell Us Your Real World Racing Experience

[Steve Bird]

Raced in karts for over 20 years in the UK, Germany, Cyprus and the Isle of Man (Peele). 100cc aircooled Pirilla (TT27) and Rotax DSD's were my first engines on a Tonykart chassis. I then moved to Rotax Max for a few years, no more bump starting thank god. Dabbled for a while in 250 cc karts which were fun but scared the crap out of you.

 

[ariwalk]

I have been rallying now about 11 years. This year I'm driving Finnish F-rallyseries. It was the most popular rallyseries in Finland. It's "blind" rally so we can't use pacenotes.

You can check out my facebook-site too. Allmost every stuff there are allso in english language too.
https://www.facebook.com/rtracinglpr/

 

[Achim Demuth]

I established a downhill racing group in 2015, called " Toy Cars Downhill Racing". Here´ s a short clip:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1650056758640482

 

[Alen Terzić]

Here's some of my driving next to a nuclear powerplant

 

[Lynx2000]

I do indoor karting racing at my local track KCR at which I drive all of my races in the YKC(local youth championship) and if possible the DOK(Dutch Open Kartchallenge) which is the Dutch Championship Indoor Karting have done this for quite a few years now, actually as I am writing this I have just done another race. I do not have any videos but I do have some pictures.

Number 2 is me:

 

[lionofjudah72]

We have a endurance kart team. We do 6hr to 12hr races.. its a blast

 

[Borgen]

I have been rallying since 2003, winning a few local cups here in sweden.
For the last 5 seasons i have been driving a BMW 325 in the modified 2wd class.

 

[Emery]

Began autocrossing in 1988 as that was affordable. Tried LOTS of cars in various categories of Stock, Street Prepared, Prepared, & Modified: Austin Mini, Triumph GT6, Volvo 142, VW turbo diesel Rabbit, C4 Corvette, Porsche 924, Mazda Miata R, Mazda RX-7 1st gen, Mazda RX-7 twin turbo 3rd gen, Nissan 300ZX twin turbo, Dodge Omni, Shelby GLHS, Fiat X-1/9, Fiat 124 Spider, Lancia Scorpion, Lancia Beta Volumex, Nissan 240SX turbo, Formula Vee, Mustang R, Lotus Europa, Subaru Justy, Cosworth Vega, Fiat 131/Brava, Dodge Neon, Toyota MR-2 1st gen, Toyota MR-2 2nd gen, & Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Edit: add '70s VW Rabbit w/2 liter motor, '80s Honda Civic w/2 liter motor, Fiat 128, Yugo

With increasing work stress & family needs, the last time I autocrossed was in 2006, in a D Modified Icsunova replica. Eventually found myself getting into the world of 24 Hours of Lemons and Chumpcar. Raced in the inaugural Chumpcar event at PIR in 2009 and a few races in 2010. You have no idea of the work that goes into 24 hour races until you do one!
Edit: did a hillclimb or two

Then I concentrated on achieving early retirement, exiting employment in November 2015, so haven't been a real racecar since then and have been putting knowledge & skills to use in simracing. There's a dozen cars I accumulated for projects, waiting for retirement to have time to work on them, so one day in the near future I'll get back to them...

Race tires experienced: Yokohama RS & RSII, BF Goodrich R1 & successors, Toyo Proxes, Hoosier Autocrosser & radial & cantilever slicks, Goodyear slicks

 

[randMracer]

Nice track. Looks like tons of fun.

 

[randMracer]

Well unless you count running from the cops in my 68' Camaro when I was a teenager, then I guess no real world experience. In my city we only had a drag strip, no road tracks, so everything was done on side streets.

 

[Dan Allen]

I did a few endurance races in karting when I thought I'd try my luck at getting into real life motorsports. I stopped the day I fainted when I was driving because of how bad my heart is. That day I discovered doctors had basically been lying to me for the past decade. ("It's all in your head." "Your x-rays are clean, I don't understand what the problem is." and such) I think I am going to be bitter about this one for a very long time.

Ahhh the dreaded medical. MSA nearly permanently disqualified me from getting my Nat B because of that. Luckily my quacks are good people and managed to wangle it for me.

 

[Leif Jensen]

I had the pleasure to drive our Ferrari 458 Challenge several times - a few days ago on Cremona Circuit in Italy - I also drove it on Oschersleben and on Curcuit de Catalunya - I don't have Cremona in any sim (can't find it) but of course the two other tracks - and must say I am amazed how close to reality the simulator is, even though you don't get the physical experience. Here's a GoPro video from Cremona... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5oxC60G2Y

 

[ouvert]

not really racing but this week as part of my work I`m on testng track having fun in 2017 RS version of one road car ... nothing fancy .. 230 HP, 250kmh max, 4x4. Both paddle shifted double clutch and H pattern gearboxes. But since I don`t have to care about tyres or suspension I can abuse it as much as I want and it is so addictive not our track day where you don`t really wanna destroy tyres ..
4 wheel slides, drifts, wet surface, blue smoke when cornering way to hard ..anything but racing with other cars ;(

What makes me realize is how far even from that simracing experiece is .. and how much easier everything is IRL (drifting, catching, H@T) ok I haven really go 250kmh, not enough space, but still even braking from 140 to chickane is pretty cool ... everything just comes naturaly. No guessing or looking for hints what car is doing ... also not a single game get FFB right when you go over max slip angle and you are driving over tyre side wall (sry I rally cant describe it better in english) ... AMS gets the general feeling pretty well though

I know for lots of people it is pretty lame but for me it s first experience of this kind (not counting karts)

 

[leseb64]

not race for me but just test-session driving
Every year for my birthday 8 laps Pau-Arnos or Nogaro
F430, porsche 997 Aerokit and Lotus exige

 

[William Levesque]

Time Attack in Quebec and a bit in Ontario as well. Will do the full season this year, but here's last year, worn heat-cycled tyres and not so great setup:

 

[poir.qc]

Went rental karting quite often(almost every week in summer) couple years ago. That got me hooked to close races. Sadly i couldn't do it as often as time went by. That's why i got back at sim racing.

Then i drove a Ferrari F430 on a race track with a co-pilot for 5 full speed lap(Well, the fastest that i could with my abilities). That was a breath taking experience to say the least.

It's a once in a life time experience! Anyone reading this ought to do it for themselves! It's that awessome!

 

[Hal Burns]

Nothing in cars...lots of local Junior motocross, back in the days of Roger deCoster, Bob Hannah. 4 inches of suspension on the ol' TM125 and a kidney belt....ha ha.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Time Attack in Quebec and a bit in Ontario as well. Will do the full season this year, but here's last year, worn heat-cycled tyres and not so great setup:

This footage is amazing, what camera are you using?

 

[Alex Townsend]

Girlfriend got me a Rally Experience at Brands Hatch in one of their Escort Cosworths decades ago.
Wife got me a track day at Rockingham in a Ferrari 360
Clio Cup Scholarship try outs at 3 Sisters Circuit in Rover 200
5 years racing Club 100 115cc direct drive 2 stroke karts.
Raced all over the UK in Endurance and Sprints
Raced at a circuit in France for Club 100 European Endurance and also the kart track at Spa, again with Club 100 Endurance

Basically money was stopping me doing more when I was younger. Some weeks I'd be living on canned soups as I'd run out of money to live but had at least paid up for my racing.
Now I'm married and have a 2 year old daughter it's money and free time stopping me... lol

 

[mopro]

Sadly none