Real life racing

It was a delightful Sunday this past weekend as there was actual, real-life racing happening on my television. The live sports hiatus is finally over as NASCAR made its return to racing at Darlington Speedway. It didn’t matter that fans weren’t allowed in the grandstands, and the people who are there were masked up and socially distancing: the only thing that mattered is the return of competition and the competitive spirit. I don’t even particularly like NASCAR - preferring motorsport disciplines where cars turn more than one direction - but I gladly spent four hours out of my Sunday to watch the 400-mile race.

Racing simulators like iRacing have put up a convincing facsimile during the past month, but as we all found out, there is absolutely no substitute for the real thing. The responses and emotions are heightened because you instinctively know the action is real, and therefore a negative action by a driver have actual consequences. There’s no reset buttons or do-overs here: drivers either show up performing their best, or they’d be out of a job really quickly. Racing games remain a great fun and an excellent training tool; however, as much as I enjoy bombing a virtual GT3 RS around the virtual Nurburgring, I still much prefer driving my actual GT3 on real roads.

It won’t be long then until the other major sports follow in the lead of NASCAR and return to our screens. No doubt those leagues will also initially hold games without attending fans, and for sure the atmosphere won’t be there for the competitors. But for those of us watching at home, sports without fans is still magnitudes better than no sport at all. It was joy to see my father watch football as he usually does on weekends before this COVID-19 situation: the German Bundesliga has returned, with matches being held without live audience.

For me, sports is not escapism, but rather a part of what I am as a person. I’ve loved motor-racing ever since I was a kid watching Michale Schumacher battling out on the streets of Monte Carlo. Motorsports will continue to be something I follow and enjoy watching, either until I cannot physically do it anymore, or the automobile as we know and love today ceases to be (when cars can drive itself). Needless to say then I’ve really missed watching what would have been the beginning rounds of the 2020 Formula One season during this quarantine, and I hope like NASCAR, the great F1 circus can return soon enough.

This past Sunday it truly felt like some normalcy has come back.

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Won’t be doing this for a long time, perhaps ever again.

The rise of racing games

With the coronavirus going on all around us, there’s obviously no professional sports happening at the moment. The main source of entertainment and escape for plenty of people, it’s rather cruel that there aren’t any sports to watch during this banishment to the confines of our homes. I get it: the reason we have to shelter in place is the same reason there aren’t any major league baseball games happening right now. It doesn’t diminish how much I am missing sports, and surely I’m one amongst many.

One discipline that seems to have embraced the situation quite well is that of motorsports. It’s uniquely able to adapt to the world of gaming, the simulation of which offers a convincing translation that it suffices to keep us entertained. Unlike a basketball video game where you don’t physically toss around a ball to play, a car in a racing game can be controlled with a wheel and pedal set-up, offering a decent enough facsimile that pro racers actually use them for training. The more extravagant setups can even offer some modicum of motion and g-force simulation, though those are prohibitively expensive for mere mortals like me who don’t have million-dollar contracts.

But I have been playing racing games with a wheel and pedal (shoutout to Logitech) since the days of Gran Turismo 4 in the early 2000s, and it’s deeply satisfying for me to see how much the “real-life” motorsport community have embraced driving simulators like a Gran Turismo or iRacing during this coronavirus episode. There’s still lots of racing happening on the weekends, just all in the virtual world. Honestly I’m quite thankful for it because it helps to break up the utter monotony of every day being exactly the same as the last.

Of course, I’m eager for real racing to return to real race tracks. There’s no replicating the sights and sounds of drivers man-handling actual cars through a corner, displaying acts of athleticism most of us can barely imagine. I’d also like to go outside and attend races, and indeed there’s no more intoxicating smell than the burning of petrol (sorry, Formula E).

In the meantime, I’m glad we have a pretty good substitute.

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This is nuts!

Toyota finally wins Le Mans

Never give up a on a dream.

After decades of futility, Toyota have finally won 1st overall at this year's  24 Hours of Le Mans. The marque joins Mazda as only the second Japanese manufacturer ever to win the storied endurance race. 

It was the team's 20th attempt; how many billions of money have been spent in chasing this glory.  

With Porsche bowing out of P1 class this year the Toyota team had little competition other than lady luck herself. All eyes were on whether the two Toyotas can finish the race without the mechanical troubles that doomed them the past two years, and if so, which car would be on the top podium step. 

The pole-sitting number 8 car of Nakajima/Alonso/Buemi have been faster all week than the sister 7 car driven by Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez, but during the race the 8 car encountered an unlucky safety-car plus a 60-second stop-go penalty that dropped them nearly 2 minutes behind. Supremely mighty night-stints by Alonso and Nakajima erased the deficit and when the sun came up on Sunday morning at La Sarthe the 8 car regain the lead it won't relinquish. 

It was poetic and emotional to see Nakajima do the final-stint to the checkered-flag, him being the driver of the car that stalled-out before the final lap while leading the race in 2016. From ultimate heartbreak to ultimate redemption. During the podium ceremony Nakajima nearly lost his composure when the Japan national anthem was playing. To win one of the crown-jewels of motorsport with the team representing your home country is super special indeed. 

Honestly it was emotional for me as well. I've been following the Toyota Le Mans effort since the GT-One (TS020) era at the tail-end of the 90's, so it's been a proper long time. I thought the 2016 tragedy with one to go was the Racing Gods telling Toyota it was never meant to be, but the team kept fighting and now they've finally achieved the result. Omedetou gozaimashita. 

Got a white one as well, in the only size of Porsche I can afford.