If you’re lucky enough to time it so you’re on the wheel during the Saturday evening fireworks, it’s an experience you’ll never forget. It’s worth putting up with whatever weather is going on to see the race from 100 feet above the track. One of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced at Daytona–outside of a race car–is going up on the Ferris wheel at night during the 24 Hour. This track is an object lesson in patience and precise execution. So every input beyond the bare minimum is a chance to upset the car and lose momentum. Daytona has a lot of very long corners that you spend a lot of time in, but those exits are critically important. Being inside that vast bowl is a singular experience.ĭaytona requires a focus on maintaining momentum and slow, deliberate steering inputs–or “slow hands,” as every driving instructor you’ve ever had has probably said. And you perceive that massive scale differently depending on if the track is packed with people, like at the 24 or the 500, or practically empty, like at a club event. That’s one thing I always remember from when I first came to Daytona: how incredibly vast the facility is. Visually, iRacing gets it right–the way you’re looking ahead by looking up instead of sideways, for example–but the sensation of literally driving up the side of the wall just can’t be matched outside of being there.Īlso, the scale of the facility is missing. So does the way your grip changes with small line adjustments through the Kink because of the compression differences from the road camber at the extreme inside edge of the track.Īt Daytona, the main factor that can’t be replicated in simulation is the feeling of running on a 33-degree banking. Little nuances, like the texture changes at the exit of the International Horseshoe (if you get out too far or track out too early), really come through. Whether virtual or not, patience will pay off here: Maintaining momentum is key.ĭaytona is ultimately a pretty straightforward and uncomplicated track, so the millimeter precision of iRacing really shines here. Many club-level series, including the SCCA’s Track Night in America, regularly run the Florida high banks. The challenge of Daytona is not to overcome a difficult track–that honor goes to Sebring–but to operate at a near-perfect level for an impossible duration.ĭaytona International Speedway might be one of the world’s most famous tracks, but it’s also quite accessible–and not just via iRacing. As a result, 24-hour races here typically come down to multi-car, nose-to-tail contests in the final laps. Oh, and that one year it was really foggy.ĭaytona has relatively few turns, and its surface is smooth and mostly predictable. Too many big names to list have competed in this twice-around-the-clock-spectacle that, due to Florida’s typically weird late-January conditions, has been contested in nearly all kinds of conditions, from near-freezing temperatures to sweltering, low-angle sun. Located right in GRM’s own back yard, Daytona International Speedway hosts the annual kickoff for all of big-time sports car racing: the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Having real-world experience at so many of these tracks made it very interesting to put some of my comparative insights on paper.”ĭaytona International Speedway: Daytona Beach, Florida Like so many people, in 2020 I dove pretty hard into iRacing competition, both as a diversion and as a training tool. “I’ve spent time behind the wheel at all the tracks in this story, both in real life and now in iRacing. I was based at the Nürburgring for five years and have raced in multiple 24-hour races there, along with stints in the British Touring Car Championships, the FIA World Touring Car championships, the Macau GP, Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Pirelli World Challenge and more. I’m Robb Holland and I have been fortunate enough over the almost two decades of my professional career to have raced all over the world. International travel isn’t so easy these days, but we can still visit some of the world’s most amazing race tracks–all through the magic of iRacing, the dominant player in today’s motorsport simulator scene.īut can all of the digital trickery of the most popular racing sim come close to approximating the experience of driving these storied circuits? Or are you just playing a video game that has no bearing on IRL driving performance? To answer those questions, we brought in a professional:
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