With more mainstream simulation titles than ever and many routes to becoming involved in the eSports scene, the racing genre is flourishing in the competitive environment. However, with so many options and opportunities many questions arise; ‘how do I become a better driver?’ ‘What is the most effective use of my time practicing?’, to name but a few. Chris Newman aims to make entry into high-level sim racing a less-daunting prospect with his free eBook ‘Virtual Race Driver’
‘Virtual Race Driver’ focuses on professionals who’ve mastered a variety of racing titles including but not limited to iRacing, Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport. The format of the eBook gives all interviewed racers a suitable amount of content to describe their practice techniques, experiences and general tips for making your way to a higher skill level. Gran Turismo Academy gets some representation with drivers like Nick McMillen and Philipp Schallenberg talking about their racing experiences to date.
The variation of content is a strong point of the guide. As an example, Schallenberg focuses on driving techniques and tips on the Nurburgring, talking about how to correctly pull off overtakes and the mental framing you should have for tackling the circuit. Meanwhile McMillen talks about the ideals of being consistent and advises on joining a racing league to improve your actual virtual racing skills. Each driver chips in with worthwhile information relevant to competitive sim racing — if you’re looking for literal driving tips, mentality advice or how to actually break into the top tier of digital racing, Newman should have you covered.
The guide is free and of a decent quality. For those who are interested in making the same leap many of the drivers in the book have made, it’s well worth a download. With GT Sport and its FIA Championships arriving at some point in 2017 there will be even more opportunities to get into competitive virtual racing.
I echo the importance of joining an online league to better yourself as a driver. I started playing Gran Turismo 5 very early 2013 and when I first played online you can only imagine how badly I was beaten. I think “curb stomped” is appropriate when describing how I stood against the competition.
Three and a half years later (roughly) racing online and taking advice from the faster drivers and practicing with them, sometimes 12 hours on end mid-summer when I was out of school, and I think I’ve come a long way. Results and promotions speak for themselves.
Not going to go into detail with everything I’ve done since then but if you want to be better racing online or time trials I highly advise just sticking with it as a slow guy for a while and embrace the learning curve. I recommend GTPlanet’s Weekly Racing Series (WRS) for time trial and online racing practice. Very friendly staff and racers over there and very open to sharing advice.