der Bayerische March/April 2021 - 20

NCC's Sim Racing League 2020 Recap

I

t seems like not too long ago when
Paul Seto, our chapter president,
approached us about the possibility
of starting up a new simulation (sim)
racing series for the chapter.
I was hesitant at first, but at the same
time I thought, " why not? " That was
back in April of 2020 and we have
been busy since - we now have over
20 virtual racers who come out every
week to race with us and have fun
along the way! We have been hosting
practice and race sessions non-stop
since May and we are enjoying both
the passionate drivers and camaraderie that comes with it.
We finished our inaugural
spring/summer season with 20
weeks of racing at 15 different tracks.
They were mostly US tracks with a
season finale at Canadian Tire
Motorsports Park, also known as
Mosport, in Canada. (A special nod
to our Canadian racers!) The drivers
are mostly from the East coast (from
Boston down to Florida), but we also
have drivers from California as well -
we welcome drivers from any BMW
CCA chapter. At the end, the season
championship went to Rafael Torres
who is from the BMW Performance

20

Center East in Greer, SC. He was
unstoppable from the beginning of
the season and had a strong run until
the end. Overall second place went to
Darin Treakle, who actually
suggested the league idea to Paul
Seto. Darin is one of the Sim Racing
committee members who continues
to help with the league setup as well
as setting the league rules. Overall
third place went to an NCC member,

Colin Kortanek, from Virginia.
During the first season, we
drove the fan-favorite M8 GTE the
entire time. The car is simply awesome; it has brutal acceleration, an
effective aero kit, lots of grip, and
powerful brakes. GTE cars do not
have ABS so it is very easy to lock up
the brakes if you're not careful. We
run a fixed setup which means that no
mechanical or aero adjustments to

By Scott Kim, Steve Tenney, and Darin Treakle

(Top) Drivers fighting for positions during a standing start in the fall season
with the Z4 GT3! (Below) Racing down the front straight at night.

the car are allowed, so the cars
are the same for everyone. Driving
ability is the primary difference in
achieving the win. All other settings
are equal for everyone so as to be fair.
Now, we do vary the time of day such
that we can be driving at sunrise
(sometimes the sun is in your face at
certain turns), mid-day when it's nice
and hot (and grippy), and of course
we race into the night. The night race
is our signature race; we try to host
one once a month at tracks that
usually have lighting such as
Daytona. We have even raced at
Road Atlanta in the middle of night
when it was pitch black - virtual
Petit Le Mans style! The night race is
something else. The headlight
system on M8 is so bright that you
can see a long way. In addition, we
also vary our fuel level so that we
force the drivers to take a pit stop.
It adds another controlled variable so
that one must work on a strategy
deciding when to stop and how much
fuel to add to finish the race. We like
to keep the drivers on their toes, you
never know what is going to happen,
just like in real racing!
The conclusion of our 20-week-

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der Bayerische March/April 2021

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