timwheatley.org

This is one of the best races I have ever driven, hands down. The only other races that I can remember coming close were when I raced in Eric Cote’s Sim Racing Mag events at the Nurburgring, using Grand Prix Legends. I remember I raced the Ferrari F2 cars, led every lap, made no errors, set fastest lap and won by a mile… The very next night I repeated the feat in the Honda Challenge event he organised.

I keep saying it, but I absolutely love this circuit. It does remind me of when I felt I knew the Nurburgring inside-out, it gives me the same thrill as I power through the blind crests, blind apex’s, well, blind everything - it’s a real challenge to do well on this track and that makes it all the more satisfying to have put the time in, and get the results out.

Anyway, earlier today I ran a qualifying session and managed to get my time down under three-minutes for the first time. I set a 2:59.895. I joined a Skip Barber Race Series event at 12:00 pm, but found myself running off the track because the Kittens decided they wanted to fight under my desk. With my race ruined I parked, sprayed them with water to stop them fighting, then rejoined so I could run some clean laps and keep my license looking healthy. The Kittens now decided they wanted to rub on my legs… So I had to quit the race and took a major hit to both license and confidence…

Joining the race at 2:00 pm, I was determined to have a good run, but knew I might find it a little difficult… I was the tenth iRated driver out of the thirteen starters and was almost certainly out of place on the grid, starting from second-place!

The green lights came on though and I made a good start, I could have probably taken the lead in the first turn if I had pushed, but decided I would stay in behind him and take second - but out of nowhere in my mirrors I saw a car braking very late - I had to stay to the outside of the turn and unfortunately lost two positions…

For the next few laps I was in a titanic struggle for second-place with two other drivers… We were so evenly matched, it was really close, but everyone raced clean and it was enormous fun…

As I continued to follow the two who had slipped by in the first turn, I knew that really it was going to be very difficult to get by, I felt that I was a little faster, but really found it hard to get close in the places it’s possible to pass!

On lap four of ten, the leader of the race spun his car coming out of the final turn and we all passed him, I was fairly close behind the guy who was now in second-place and was now more determined to make a move…

I managed to move into second-place on lap five when the man infront got a bit sideways and I took my opportunity, I didn’t slow down and pulled off a great little overtaking manouver into the next corner. As I pulled away, the former leader was now breathing down his neck and I was pretty pleased that I wasn’t the one in that position! He did eventually get past, but it took him until the beginning of lap nine.

Nothing else exciting really happened for the rest of the race, but I did make a rather large error on lap nine… I lost control of the car on the back end of the circuit while trying (and being successful at) closing down the leader, this dropped me to fourth-place and filled me with disappointment for a few moments until I realized that if I pushed hard I might be able to close the four-second gap to the man in third. I pushed really hard and was able to close him down, and got as close as eight-tenths from him, but finished one and a half seconds back when I realized it was a lost cause.

So, was I disappointed with a fourth-place? Not really… My license went up, my iRating went up, I proved to myself that I can do a clean race if I don’t push myself over the edge and really, that’s all I need to take away from it. I still seem to be getting faster and my iRating has been in an upward trend lately, it’s a big boost.

I lost four incident points total and set my fastest lap on lap six. It was my first time lapping under three-minutes in a race and was a 2:59.933.

I just had to post this… Remember Grand Prix Legends? It was based on the 1967 F1 season and was developed by the folks I’m working with.

I spent many years racing it and someone has actually managed to get these superb 1951 cars into the sim. Very nice!

I think firstly that if Insurance Companies are going to be taking this study seriously, they need to distinguish between racing games like those mentioned and the types of racing games and simulations that are actually available.

I can absolutely understand why the study could be correct. Having played Burnout I can tell you that I thought my reflexes were amazing as I managed to navigate through traffic while travelling much faster than them… and surely that’s the problem? These racing games simulate normal roads, normal roads where there are actually speed limits, normal roads where there are “innocent people” in those other cars you crash into when your reflexes aren’t quite fast enough. Couple that style of racing with the glorified slow-motion replays of every crash titles like Burnout provide you with and it’s easy for someone like me to see the problem.

I do play those types of games, but I also run racing simulations, racing simulations are completely different. There is no traffic heading in the opposite direction, there are no “innocent motorists” and the crashing isn’t glorified. Quite often if you make a mistake and crash in a racing simulation - that’s your race done as your car is wrecked - compare that with the endless supply of wreckable machines “God” supplies you with in the Burnout series.

Eventually if you play games like Burnout you are going to believe that not only are you supremely skilled, you’re also invincible. When you run a racing simulation, such as Grand Prix Legends, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season or the new iRacing.com Motorsport Simulation, the objective is to finish well in the race and that means making as few mistakes as possible, being a clean, smooth driver, being aware of other drivers and giving room to them when they get close to you. It is entirely different.

I have raced many times on games like Burnout and Need for Speed. I once was even commandeered by a work colleague to unlock a license for him on GT3 because he couldn’t do it… Almost every time I raced, I raced those games with my simulation head on, I slowed a lot more than I had to in a “bounce of the walls” style game, I didn’t often put myself in a risky position or crash and even though I may have looked slower I often ended up at the finishing line first.

Back in June 2006 I was lucky enough to be able to drive a Skip Barber 2000 racecar at Lime Rock Park, my only “training” prior to this was done on iRacing.com’s new simulator. I was frightened about being out there on the real track in the real car, I wasn’t crazily confident. Driving a Dodge Neon, Viper and RAM before the Skip Barber 2000 gradually taught me the real world skills I already had locked in my brain from the racing simulations I race on a daily basis. I had 40 minutes of track time and only 10 minutes in did I have one little loss of control - but I caught it. You can actually play these arcade style games like Need for Speed in a realistic manner but the game does not promote this, they promote breaking the speed limit, they promote crashing into “innocent traffic” and they often promote running from the Police. Racing simulations promote being the best driver you can be, being fast on a closed circuit while also maintaining control of the car.

I was recently very annoyed while in the middle of a race for work my CPU chip decided it didn’t want to be performing at it’s maximum level anymore. I have had this problem quite often when running a high-end piece of software my system seems to “timeout” going fast and decides to revert back to between 80 and 200MHz rather than it’s maximum 2400MHz.

I had a similar problem before with Grand Prix Legends, so I looked up some of the fixes and this utility appeared to solve my problems for me.

It is so very, very annoying that Windows XP manages your power saving without giving you any idea of what it is actually doing. It has taken me months to find out what this issue is and it’s only thanks to it happening with work that I found out.

Of course for the huge majority of the time I will have the SpeedswitchXP Utility on “dynamic switching” the same as Windows XP had it, but now every time I start to do something where I know I need the power and XP wouldn’t, I’m going to crank it up!

I have uploaded another couple of videos. I think they were both from a single race on 17th September 1999. Both take place at Monza and basically both show how quick my reactions were back then… Let’s face it - when you raced at Monza with VROC back in 1999 - you had to have incredible reactions just to stay out of the wrecks!

I have managed to find my most memorable Grand Prix Legends replay thanks to the crowd at RSC. I have uploaded a video to YouTube, taken from a replay of me driving in 2000. Grand Prix Legends is a computer simulation of the 1967 Formula One World Championship. The title was produced by Papyrus Racing Games in 1998. I now work for the same people at iRacing.com.

Obviously I have pretty fond memories of my time with GPL, but unfortunately as time went long I didn’t save my replays like I should have.

I have the ones from my second season in IGPS, also I have the three that JimmiBo posted on his Web site.

I am especially keen to get my hands on a replay of Markus “Maaki” Stiepel and I racing at Spa in Brabham’s.

Anyone have any?

The higher staff in RSC has known this for a little while, but finally I get to tell the rest of you! I was approached by FIRST to take up a position of employment with them working on their “new product” and I accepted. This is a dream for me and I never imagined it when I setup a shoddy little website back in April 1999 that turned into this place, (RSC has existed since December 18th 2001 when the forums went online). I can’t say moderating his place has been fun but it has been educational!

I know there will be some comment about this, but I’m really not debating things anymore. However you feel about anybody, I feel I have friends and ‘colleagues’ in sim racing at all quarters, Jure from BHMS, Jan from US Pits among the best of them. Life has been pretty messy with the move to Northern Ireland etc (those of you who have been here from the Legends Central days know how much that site cost both myself and Phil Lee), but to get an offer like this? To work with someone like Dave Kaemmer?

When I was taking my exams at school, my friend Kieron and I went back to his place (I had an Amiga), turned on his PC and ran Indy 500 for a few hours… My life has been racing simulations for 10 years, Dave has been the author of them for 10 years also. RSC is five years old.

My fondest memories in sim racing are back in the days of early Grand Prix Legends, some of you who are still here were here way back then too. I hope you guys get the same feelings about Dave’s latest as I had about GPL way back in 1998.

No matter how you feel, please be happy for me achieving my dream here, good karma says if you do you’ll get yours too.

Tim.

GPL - works fine using the 32 bit emulator built-in.
N2003 - works fine using 32 bit emulator.
TrackMania Sunrise - fails on launch due to copy protection.
GTR - fails on launch due to copy protection.
Silent Hunter 3 - fails on launch due to copy protection.
Rome Total War - works fine in 32 bit.

The copy protection issues are all to do with Star Force. However, Star Force say it is the developer who needs to update their software, as their protection software will work with Windows x64.

I’ll try to update this as and when I find out, this isn’t verified info though and I can only speak from what I know. Obviously I’m not just mentioning racing games…

If you intend to upgrade, do not use the facility offered by Microsoft of trading in your 32 bit version for your 64 bit version, because at this time you will need a 32 bit Windows XP installation if you intend to get use out of it. If you (like me) have a 64 bit capable chip and can’t wait to try it out (I can tell the difference just in the Windows environment), it costs $20 for the trial to be shipped to the UK, more info here.

I’ve come to a decision to stand down from working for RSC as some of you may have guessed by the announcement asking for someone to take over what I do. I have decided to finish a few things I have either promised I’ll do or feel I can’t leave without finishing, but after that I can’t see myself coming back as staff.

It’s difficult to remain happy about what I’ve been doing when the work I do prevents me from doing what I like to do. I’ve been doing this for nearly 5 years, seriously (with little free time) for about 3.

The last time I drove a racing sim was when I was at Spa with SIMBIN (something that made me very happy to be in the position I was), but I haven’t drove a racing sim in any serious way for about 2 years all in all. So I say to myself, what’s the point in loving racing sims and not being able to play them because you’re running a site and reading posts about other people racing them?

This time 4 years ago I was in 11 leagues racing Grand Prix Legends, but I gradually had to drop out as my free time got less and less, I’ve let down people like ESCORS (by joining, doing 1, maybe 2 races - then dropping out as I can’t make races consistently) and I just want to have fun again… I’ve gradually let RSC take over my life and I think I’d like it back.

This decision has been a long time coming, infact over the last year there have been numerous times where the burnout has hit me and I’ve gone away from RSC for 2 weeks, sometimes more… But each time I come back, I came back to 2 weeks PM’s, 2 weeks questions, 2 weeks problems. The other administration staff fully expected me to come to this final decision eventually I think, but that doesn’t make it any easier to decide - I’ve been thinking about this for a long, long time.

RSC is going places, it’s growing bigger and better and with projects like the Emporium that Mikkel has setup - it’s also going places I never really considered when I started out on ‘Legends Central’ (my site which was merged with SimRacing.dk to form RSC), I really think if I come back in a years time to see what’s going on then I’ll not even recognise it and I think that should be pretty exciting for you folks.

Take care of yourselves people.