The first race I slotted into the grid in ninth and held the number 16 on my car, this meant I was the lowest rated driver in the event. Still, looking at everyone else’s qualifying times I figured I’d probably be able to finish in the top-three if I didn’t make any mistakes…

I got a decent, safe start, but as usual I made the mistake of driving too safely. This always seems to happen to me and it’s incredibly annoying: I was much, much faster than those ahead of me, but they were all over the race track (and off it – I managed to avoid someone who span across the racetrack having ran wide out of the final turn), so with them being all over the race track, I stand back and wait for them to sort themselves out.

But, by waiting, by not shoving my nose into a multi-car battle, I leave myself open to the people behind because I am being forced to lap slower than I am capable! How annoying is that? To get passed not because you’re slower, but because you’ve reasoned that nobody infront of you is actually going anywhere! Honestly, on that first lap, they were crawling.

So, basically that’s the story: I dropped a few places, got annoyed at losing those places, made my own mistake running wide, slapped the wall under the bridge, damaged my left side and of course the person behind went to overtake on the right in the downhill… I had to stay left, with a damaged left side, and went off-track and into the fence.

I reset and rejoined the race in 12th, gradually making my way up to eighth without passing anybody on the track. My fastest lap was on lap 11 of 31 and was a 58.797 and this was especially annoying because I came out of the pits with the leaders and lost almost no time to them at all in the 26 laps I ran after the reset.

I also tried to join the race after and jumped the start. That race was done for literally before it began and I finished with less points that the race above netted me, so the race was dropped.

I am now standing eighth in Skip Barber Race Series points, 164 out of first and 80 out of second-place.

On Saturday 13th February, 2010 I was unable to run the 500, but got in a quick qualifying session for my race on the 20th just 15 minutes before the race session: I set a 48.075 and this would put me in 11th-place to start the race.

With 30 minutes of warm-up, it gave everybody plenty of time to check their setup, practice put stops, etc. I personally just practiced getting into and off pit road at speed and missed an opportunity to notice and correct that ‘terribly important’ thing once again…

The start of the iRacing Daytona 500.

We raced through a few cautions in the early laps, but things remained fairly constant for me until lap 15: It was the first time I’d really had to slam on the brake and when I did so it must have knocked my calibration off (recalibrating was the ‘terribly important’ thing I’d forgotten to do). At that point I was running 12th and just biding my time, but unknown to me the brake was now dragging and I hadn’t noticed the tiny sliver of red on the brake indicator.

Over the next 100 laps or so I just went backwards. At the time I believed I had lost an engine cylinder and was down on power, it wasn’t until about lap 114 that I realized what had happened, having finally noticed that the brake indicator was showing applied brakes.

Initially I just pulled back on the brake with my left foot while pushing on the throttle with my right, but after I began to experience cramping I managed to fix it for good on lap 164. However, during those last few laps I had had enormous fun: I normally wait until there’s ten laps remaining before I push really hard to get to the front, but knowing my position I used a combination of strategy, aggression and good luck to come back from two laps down to one, and come back from 22nd-place on lap 114 to 14th as the race ended.

Three-wide at Daytona.

So I ended with mixed emotions, just like everyone else: At one point I had resigned myself to just running for safety rating with a damaged engine, but I ended up having a lot of fun in some really tight racing. I had very few incidents (scraped the wall on lap 100, car contact on 190, the wreck on 194 and an off track on 198 while I got out of the way of the other cars on the final restart), but I still can’t help but think what might have happened had I not been trailing brake for half of the race!

My only real solace is that if this were real life, NASCAR would have probably forced me to start at the back anyway due to an ‘engine change’ in my PC… Starting back there I probably would have gotten involved in one of those early accidents and wouldn’t have had the fun I did during the race. Maybe next year I’ll be able to finish on the lead lap!

I like the track, so missing qualifying wasn’t that big of a deal but the number of registrants was really large. I ended up in the third of four splits! My race had 15 drivers, of which I was iRated as fifth but would be starting back in 12th.

I got a decent start and as usual in the Skip Barber Series saw some patient driving into the first turn. Due to a few errors from other drivers I had climbed to ninth-place by the end of the lap.

I made a pass for eighth out of turn one on lap two, but half way around the lap had to brake hard to avoid a multi-car crash ahead… Luckily I didn’t hit anything and when everything shook out I ended lap two in seventh-place.

It was very early in the race and I had quite a bit of speed I wasn’t using. I could see that many people around me were pushing too hard and starting lap three I let the car behind pass, figuring that his car number of 15 meant he would probably make an error later in the race.

A lap later I took advantage of an error by the car ahead into the first turn and slipped ahead, up into seventh-place now. Seventh became sixth half way around the lap when the #15 spun his car onto the grass.

After an error in the final turn of lap five I saw the car I had passed with a mistake it turn one close up behind me… Again, with it being early in the race I didn’t fight and let him go.

One lap later I was flipping through the screens of data available to me to see what my last laptime was, basically seeing if I needed to speed up, when I noticed I had passed my braking point for the first turn! I quickly locked it down but slid into the sand anyway, losing two positions! Luckily half way around the lap I was able to overtake one car who had spun, but I ended lap eight in seventh-place.

I pushed really hard for the next seven laps, setting my best lap of 1:22.339 during the run. It was now lap 15 of 22 and I had closed right in on the pack I had been leisurely following before my mistake…

Between then and the end of the race I led a bit of a charmed life; people just kept falling off the track infront of me! By lap 16 I was sixth, 19 I was fifth and 20 I was fourth – but it was then that I realised my trip to the sand had probably cost me a much higher finish as the car I had been following at the time was up in second-place… I had no time to catch them now and ran across the line on lap 22 in fourth.

It was a great run though. Coming from 12th to fourth isn’t easy for me… The only kind of annoying thing is that I really didn’t have to fight to finish where I finished… Still, maybe I’d see better luck on that front in the 500?

Fastest lap was 13, a 1:22.339. I had two incidents (trip into the sand and running wide once out of final turn).

I qualified a day earlier, setting a decent time of 15.718. I didn’t even finish the session cleanly, spinning as I took the white flag – so I didn’t hold out much hope for the race.

Starting third on the grid at Oxford Plains I first of all tried to stop the second-place starter from being able to get down to the bottom of the race track. I almost managed this but when he almost spun and swung into my front end while I was underneath I backed off a bit and settled into third.

I stayed in third until lap 19, when the highest rated driver managed to sneak his nose on the inside of me into the turn. I’d made it pretty difficult for him to get his nose under there, but he did manage it eventually. Into the next turn I did run right into the back of him as he slowed for the car ahead, this gave us both light damage but I settled down into fourth-place to start lap 20.

On lap 28 I had fallen back a little and was starting to come under pressure for my fourth-place when I saw contact ahead between second and third: One spun to the inside, one spun to the outside and I ran straight through the middle and up into second-place.

I had light pressure for second for a few laps, but eventually settled into a rhythm and was able to pull away enough that I held the position until the end of the race.

Pretty pleased with the result, especially in a field of fairly highly rated drivers. My iRating has gone up by about 400 within recent weeks and I’m starting to get some incredible racing from it. I was the fourth rated driver and finishing second was a good result.

I had no recorded incidents, set my fastest lap of 15.829 on lap five and took a large points haul of 102.

I put in a qualifying time of 2:12.597 the previous day and felt pretty well tuned with the Skip Barber Formula 2000 around VIRginia International Raceway. The qualifying time put me second on the grid and being the tenth-rated driver I knew this was a field rated well above me… I was looking forward to taking advantage of my liking of VIR.

I noticed the third-place car creeping shortly before the green light and knew that he had jumped the start, I knew that I just needed to concentrate on not screwing up the first turn and I’d be in a great position to challenge for the lead later in the lap. Unfortunately that perfect start was taken from me when going into the turn I noticed the second-place car getting closer and closer to mine… I had no choice but to run off the track. It was either a spin or certain car contact followed by probable damage – and a spin.

I recovered and rejoined in last-place (12th). I quickly set about catching the pack as I knew that at this stage they’d still be bunched together and forcing each other to run slower than they were capable of alone. It didn’t take long before I caught the pack and moved past two cars going into the final couple of turns; Unfortunately into the final turn the car ahead had to brake sharply to avoid the car ahead of him, forcing me to react and yet again I was spinning off into the grass to avoid them. I crossed the line to end lap one in ninth-place, infront of the driver who had damaged their cars in the final corner.

I crossed the line to start lap two in seventh-place and considering I didn’t pass anybody, assumed this was due to crashes ahead of me I didn’t see.

Ending the third lap I was closing in on the battle for fifth when I saw them both spin ahead of me: Very similar to what I had to do in the NASCAR Class D race I ran this week I split the two spinning cars, missing each by a very small distance and crossing the line to start lap four in fifth.

I pushed really hard from lap four to lap eight, setting faster laptimes on each lap. By lap eight I caught the battle for third-place and after seeing how quickly I had closed them down, was given fourth-place by one of the cars ahead. It took another lap before I got close enough to the third-place car to make a pass attempt and when I did, he simply ran off the road. I think he didn’t think there was room – although I left him plenty – but whatever, I was in third-place.

I continued to push hard, hoping something might happen to the first or second-place cars to move me further up the finishing order, but it wasn’t to be. I finished third and still think that was an awesome result.

I set my fastest time on lap 14 of 14, a 2:11.932. I had four incidents (from two spins) in the race and took home 84 championship points.

I ran a qualifying session earlier in the week and was really just looking for a decent time. I set a 1:51.624. It wasn’t a great time, but it would get me infront of those who don’t post times in qualifying prior to races.

I joined the session and found that I would be seventh on a 13-car grid where I was rated as being the second best driver. Looking at these numbers I knew that I should be slightly better than most of the drivers I was racing with and with most of them I’d just have to be patient. After all, the iRating is calculated from finishing positions, not necessarily how fast someone is… Most of the time I find that if a driver with a larger number overtakes me in a race, he will make some kind of mistake later in the race which causes him to be back behind me where the iRating predicted.

Anyway, the race started and I got a pretty good start, holding my seventh-place. I did have a bit of trouble with one of the cars ahead who ran into the side of me out of the corkscrew and then almost spun coming out of the final turn on the first lap. I did manage to hold my position, but I became desperate to get away from him, lunging to the inside into the first turn to start lap two and again being turned into… He then spun as we came to the end of lap two, and along with a spin by the leader I now found myself in fourth starting lap three.

I began to come under a bit of pressure now from the car behind and for four laps held him there before finally pulling over to let him go. I figured there was a chance he would spin and give me the place back and if not, at least he wasn’t going to push me into making an error. He lasted from lap seven to lap eleven infront of me before spinning, giving me back my fourth-place.

One lap later I saw the second-place car spin ahead of me and managed to sneak around the outside of him before he rejoined. This put me up into third-place. I now felt a lot more comfortable with the car and track and had now started to lap in the 1:49’s. I decided to try to push and catch the new second-place car.

Over the last five laps I did get closer and closer, but simply ran out of time. I was slightly disappointed that I had started the race in such a leisurely fashion, but still with a third-place I had brought in 75 championship points – a massive haul for me.

My fastest lap was 8 of 16. Laptime was 1:49.325. I had two incidents: One when diving to the inside in turn one on lap two, the other when running wide out of the corkscrew.

I qualified early in the week and set a 22.142s laptime around this fairly flat racetrack. I hadn’t run on USA in a really long time, so was pretty pleased with the time. When I joined the race though I found myself in the highest of three splits and while I was pleased to be given the chance to get more points, I was also disappointed that I’d be stuck at the back of the field for the entire race.

It wasn’t that interesting of a race… I was quite careful at the start and by starting on the inside line was able to hold seventh-place to lap five. I then dropped to eighth and that is where I stayed until lap 22 when I braked a little too hard going into the turn, and that gave room on the inside for the car behind. There was no way I could fight him off and I dropped to ninth. Not that bad of a showing in a 14 car field where I was rated as number 12.

My fastest lap was a 22.178. No incidents.

If you would like to run the 2010 iRacing.com Daytona 500, check out this promotional video I made that features a great promo (3 months, free COT, free Daytona – $32).

Anyway, let’s talk about my race…

I qualified in second-place with a 47.830. I was just using the (new) Advanced setup for the car (which is actually quite good now) and knew that I had a good shot.

I started well and slotted into third-place on lap one. Everyone raced side by side successfully with only one hairy moment when the car ahead of me touched the apron in turn four. On lap 30 there was a wreck ahead of me and I just managed to clear it. I pitted, coming out in sixth-place.

For the entire race I had been experimenting with the high line. It seemed that if I was overtaking on the outside I could do it by myself as long as I wasn’t near the front, once I got closer to the leader on the high side the air just knocked me back. After the restart from the caution on lap 30 I knew this and decided to wait until ten laps to go before I pushed for the lead.

So, with ten to go I went for it, I was moving up from fifth-place and luckily caught the fourth-place man as he had a blip in his connection. I just snuck my nose on the inside and he had to give way. At the same time the second-place car had bobbled up in the turn and I followed the inside cars through, moving into third almost straight away.

I wasn’t able to move into second-place until lap 64 of 70, when the second-place car bobbled in the turn just enough for me to stick my nose on the inside again. It was close, but being a clean racer he knew he had to give me the inside and just said “Damn it!” over the in-race radio… Now I just had to pass the man who had been leading since lap 17!

I certainly tried my best. I tried to look for a gap on the low side, but one never came. I tried to go high on the backstretch, but always decided to slot back into second. Eventually I decided that after hearing others complain about not being able to hold the car down in the turns, I’d try and see if I could make the leader have that problem… So I started to bump draft at the end of the straight, hoping he’d have to run up the banking and give me the low-side.

Unfortunately, the leader was always glued to that inside line and eventually I started to bump draft simply to try to stay ahead of the outside line which was forming. I crossed the line a mere 0.070s behind.

So, like I said: I am not sure if I will compete for a championship in the NASCAR Class A Series. Certainly feeling pretty good about the World Tour event though… Daytona 500, here I come!

My 2009 Season 4 had been a tough one. I moved from Massachusetts to Illinois part way through and took a vacation in England (working at the Autosport Show where we announced licensing of Williams F1 in the process). When I left for England I was in the top-3 of both the Skip Barber Series and Late Model Tour for my division, but when I returned I was nowhere. I really had worked hard to find the time to race this season and – being the person who creates and sends out the certificates – really wanted one for myself! Going into Saturday I knew that if I could just eek out a Podium I’d have one…

Saturday morning was spent (much like the Autosport Show) running laps in qualifying mode. I didn’t really care where I started the ROLEX 2.4, I just wanted to beat the laptimes that Steve Myers (iRacing’s executive vice president and executive producer) kept taunting me with! I’d left Autosport with the upper-hand, but Steve ended up beating my final qualifying time of 1:41.253 by a tenth. As annoyed as I was that Steve had beaten me (and yes, I was truly annoyed), he had inspired me to knock a full second off my previous best and had also allowed me to become comfortable going that pace.

With my wife fully aware not to call home between the hours of 11am-2pm, I watched the clock count down to zero and saw a whopping 949 others would be racing with me. After getting into my split (one of 24 races containing 39-40 participants) I checked the entries and qualifying order to find that although I was rated as being the 17th best driver in the field, I had managed to qualify seventh. I suspected a lot of this was because some had chosen to start at the back, or start from pitlane, but I was fine with that!

Clean getaway

On lap two Coleman and I flew past Andrew Hayes on the banking while I settled into what would become my first battle of the race: The battle for fourth-place with the #2 car of Glen Jerome.
Jerome and I ran nose to tail from lap two until lap 30, exchanging position three times. We had a great fight and gave each other plenty of room during those ‘sideways moments’ the Daytona Prototype throws at you. Then on lap 30, to my utter amazement, people started to pit! I checked my predicted fuel usage and it still said I was on-track to make it half-way, so I just reveled in the fact that not only had I moved into second-place, I had also lost Jerome in traffic.

As the laps wound down and I approached the half way point, I had run a remarkably clean race with just a couple of off track penalties at the chicane. My tires were really starting to struggle though and by lap 43 it became hard to keep consistent. I decided to try to save fuel, so started to run all the first-gear turns in second and the chicane in third. Coleman, who had pitted out of second-place earlier, had closed me down and I pulled up on the banking to let him by before I eventually pitted on lap 46.

Coming out of the pits I found myself right infront of fourth-place man Augusto Gabaldoni. Gabaldoni became my second major battle of the race as we sparred even closer than I had with Jerome. We ran for 16 laps together, swapped position twice and pushed each other to our absolute limits: It was Gabaldoni who went over it first with a slow, lurid spin coming out of the infield.

Gabaldoni spins, Wheatley in 17

Unfortunately, on lap 69, my concentration broke. I lost the car coming into the chicane and had to let Coleman by before rejoining the track, I started to obsess about how much that slide had worn my tires and really, that was it: Concentration was not going to return.

The rest of the race, for me, was about survival. I lapped as carefully as I could and watched Dan Caskanette and Chad Coleman pull away from me while I kept making small errors. I knew that if I didn’t make a large error – I’d be fine – I’d finish on the podium, so I just settled into the third-place finish.

Finally, a certificate!

View on Youtube. I got a couple of position changes at the wrong time in the video, but I’m not going to change it now.

Felt great to come away with a victory at Road Atlanta. Feel like I really have a handle on the Skippy like I had a few years ago (yes, years). I really had to work for the win, too. Full race: Part 1. Part 2. Race results.

This was another great race with a result that was great but disappointing. I simply could not find a way past the leader without wrecking him. I even let the 3rd-place guy past and when he got wrecked by the leader while trying to pass I decided 2nd-place was better than no place. Starting tenth and finishing second does feel good… Full race: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Race results.