Dzul
Premium
Aloha! My name is Raul and I have been in and out of SimRacing since my teens. I’m on the last laps towards 50 so I grew up seeing our beloved hobby hatch, mutate, grow and mature into what it is today.
My first sim was Pitstop II on the C64 back in the 80’s which I played until the diskette failed. Yes, I call it a sim because it used real track’s layouts and you had to manage your tyres and fuel (thus make a Pitstop ha!) and that’s something PolePosition didn’t have back then and boy it made a difference in gameplay.
After a hiatus I got an Xbox with (Halo and) the first Forza Motorsports. That made for a steep learning curve on braking for, turning into and exiting corners. A friend took me karting to enlighten me on all that and I realised that speed was my thing also IRL and that the controller was a killer for immersion when racing digitally. I decided to get a proper wheel and pedals set, so I ditched the console for a new PC and a yellow Logitech Formula GP. Man, what a difference that made back then.
From there on it was just SimRacing as we now know it. I tried many titles like GPL, GP4, LFS (my guilty pleasure), the very first rFactor and afterwards every single thing SimBin made. But GTR2 is what really got me hooked, specially racing online with friends. It’s also what got me into spending money upgrading hardware: first a MOMO Racing and afterwards a ‘top of the line’ G25. Fun fact: the MOMO outlived the G25. Man, the naughties were great days.
When I became a dad, life priorities shifted gear and so I had to put simracing in the pitbox. That was my second hiatus, until my kid got into an age in which we could do some gaming and karting together, which we still do. Then I got an unexpected birthday gift from my GF when I turned 40: a track day at Zandvoort. It was a fantastic experience because I love old-school circuits and also because it was a rainy day. Driving fast in the wet was a challenging but thrilling experience. That got the old engine running again and so I dusted off the old PC with GTR2 and the G25 until it gave up.
When the first lockdown hit I got back in touch with my old racing mates and decided to get back to racing online together so I upgraded hardware (in stages) with a new PC, a TS-PC wheel with the T-LCM pedals, a sturdy rig and a bigger, curved monitor. I dug up my old password for Race Department and signed up for the Rookie Races. Now I'm doing Multiclass and many special events that Han and other RD staff organise, which is a blast.
Getting back (yet again) to simracing was one of the best decisions I made in 2020 and I can’t recommend you enough to join the online events organised by Race Department at Simracing.gp, it’s just great fun with a fantastic crowd.
So, that’s it from me. Hope to see you on the digital track sometime!
My first sim was Pitstop II on the C64 back in the 80’s which I played until the diskette failed. Yes, I call it a sim because it used real track’s layouts and you had to manage your tyres and fuel (thus make a Pitstop ha!) and that’s something PolePosition didn’t have back then and boy it made a difference in gameplay.
After a hiatus I got an Xbox with (Halo and) the first Forza Motorsports. That made for a steep learning curve on braking for, turning into and exiting corners. A friend took me karting to enlighten me on all that and I realised that speed was my thing also IRL and that the controller was a killer for immersion when racing digitally. I decided to get a proper wheel and pedals set, so I ditched the console for a new PC and a yellow Logitech Formula GP. Man, what a difference that made back then.
From there on it was just SimRacing as we now know it. I tried many titles like GPL, GP4, LFS (my guilty pleasure), the very first rFactor and afterwards every single thing SimBin made. But GTR2 is what really got me hooked, specially racing online with friends. It’s also what got me into spending money upgrading hardware: first a MOMO Racing and afterwards a ‘top of the line’ G25. Fun fact: the MOMO outlived the G25. Man, the naughties were great days.
When I became a dad, life priorities shifted gear and so I had to put simracing in the pitbox. That was my second hiatus, until my kid got into an age in which we could do some gaming and karting together, which we still do. Then I got an unexpected birthday gift from my GF when I turned 40: a track day at Zandvoort. It was a fantastic experience because I love old-school circuits and also because it was a rainy day. Driving fast in the wet was a challenging but thrilling experience. That got the old engine running again and so I dusted off the old PC with GTR2 and the G25 until it gave up.
When the first lockdown hit I got back in touch with my old racing mates and decided to get back to racing online together so I upgraded hardware (in stages) with a new PC, a TS-PC wheel with the T-LCM pedals, a sturdy rig and a bigger, curved monitor. I dug up my old password for Race Department and signed up for the Rookie Races. Now I'm doing Multiclass and many special events that Han and other RD staff organise, which is a blast.
Getting back (yet again) to simracing was one of the best decisions I made in 2020 and I can’t recommend you enough to join the online events organised by Race Department at Simracing.gp, it’s just great fun with a fantastic crowd.
So, that’s it from me. Hope to see you on the digital track sometime!
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