RACE NOTES
Spark.
A friend dragged me to a karting track and the noise stayed with me. Back home I opened GT Sport on a controller, memorizing lines at Nürburgring and Red Bull Ring. Assetto Corsa followed, and two years later I committed: pedals, force-feedback wheel, the whole rig.
Learning curve.
Switching from thumbsticks to a wheel was humbling. In ACC I started ten seconds off on a two-minute lap; through thousands of imperfect laps I chipped it to six, then five, four, three. Every tenth came from braking five meters later, trusting rotation, feeding throttle sooner.
Exploration.
I rotated between formula cars, LMDh prototypes, and rally. On a few gravel stages I climbed into the world’s top 200; on circuits I became a 102% driver—within two percent of the “alien” laps.
Real tarmac.
I kept karting: from 5-hp four-strokes to 30-hp two-strokes in 100-kg chassis on slicks, learning to feel the remaining grip at the limit.
The grind.
Sim racing isn’t arcade comfort. Friends who are confident road drivers often spin within a lap. I did too—spins, walls, invalidated laps—again and again for that last 0.1.
