Samuel Reiman features his sim racing blogs here on simrace247.com. Here we catch up with a proud and great moment in sim racing.
Racing for a Good Cause in Historic F1 Cars at Daytona
I’m pretty sure when Colin Chapman designed the Lotus 79, he never intended it to be raced virtually flat out on the Daytona International Speedway.
But, ah well, we did it anyway!
And it was all for a good cause. I was one of 30 drivers Wednesday night who took to Daytona in iRacing’s virtual Lotus 79 in a 100-lap race for the Thumbs Up, Cancer Down 250.
Thumbs Up, Cancer Down is a charity whose goal is to help comfort those who are battling cancer by sending them Thumbs Up Power Up Packs. Just in entry fees alone, we were able to raise nearly $900 by the time the green flag dropped.
During practice, we had had a massive multi-car incident coming out of Turn 4, and we were all too aware that the same thing could happen during the actual race. My plan was to try and qualify well so that if any early drama did break out, it would take place behind me.
That being said, I was not expecting to make it onto the front row of the grid! For a brief glorious minute, my car was sitting at the top of the scoring pylons during qualifying, until eventually, Matt Taylor dethroned me.
Ah well, the opening stages of the race still went according to plan. Granted, I faded back to 19th, but I was still in the lead pack and that’s all that really matters when it comes to superspeedway racing.
Where I really screwed up was when I came in for my first stop. I unknowingly put the car in neutral and then lost valuable time trying to bang the car back into the gear before I could leave my pit stall.
A caution may have saved me but, unfortunately for me, the yellow never flew until Lap 98 of 100, putting an end to the race with me in 12th.
Marc Cohn took the win, and we all left pleased that we had helped out a great cause. Chances are it definitely won’t be the last charity race for Thumbs Up, Cancer Down, with a possible race at Martinsville using iRacing’s new Formula Vee car even being discussed!
The full race broadcast can be found in the link provided by Racespot Tv
To catch up with the introduction of Samuel Reiman and his blogs visit: Samuel Reiman: Racer, Journalist, Commentator and more – SimRace247
