World Wide Technology Raceway or WWTR is located just outside St Louis on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river. Previously known as Gateway due to it’s proximity to the St. Louis arch. The main track is a NASCAR oval with an infield road course section. World Wide Technology Raceway from Google Earth This was a new track for me and my fist time running a roval. A nice blend of the...
It’s the end of April, I’m 2 events and 6 races into the 2021 season and I’ve been MIA since the end of 2020. A new business opportunity presented itself early 2021 and pretty much consumed my life. It’s one of those high risk high reward moments with potential to fulfill every gearheads dream, to play racecars all day. I’m not quit there yet but I am at a point...
Racing in town is always a welcome break from the ‘go go go’ usually associated with travel events. Sleeping in my own bed, eating my own food and generally taking a slower pace throughout the weekend is a nice respite; although a lot of credit goes to the crew that runs the NASA Midsouth region as well.
I find it hard to write an introduction for my latest trip to the National Corvette Museum so I will say this; I have always had a love hate relationship with this track and this weekend was particularly difficult. Preparation I always stress having a plan for a race weekend and this weekend was no exception. NCM is a complex 23 turn course in it’s full configuration with a mix of turns...
Back to the swamp for round 3 of the NASA Midsouth 2020 season. And following the established trend, this year was tamer than last with all of the excitement reserved for the track.
‘Holy Shit it’s great to be back at Barber!’ Yep, that’s what I’m starting with.
What better way to reignite the 2020 season than a trek to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the annual Turn 7 Girl memorial event hosted by NASA Southeast. This year was unique with the addition of a few Covid-19 restrictions that everyone was more than willing to comply with in order to race.
VR resolutions are improving rapidly leaving the narrow FOV (Field of View) the biggest drawback in sim racing. Most mainstream headsets are in the 100 to 120 degree range limiting peripheral vision dramatically. This is fine in a lot of VR games but in sim racing, peripheral vision is a huge component to immersion. Something serious sim racers traditionally remedy with a 3 screen build. Enter...
I’m not sure I actually enjoy sim racing yet. I’ve used sims such as iRacing to learn a new track in the past but never jumped in the competitive ‘deep end’ of the sim so to speak. I’ve always been more drawn to the fps and arcade style genres. Games where you function at 100 percent intensity. Perhaps that is where a distinction could be drawn as iRacing isn’t...
I want this article to serve as a primer for running the road course at Memphis International Raceway and help new drivers come up to speed quickly. Memphis is a short, rough and very rewarding track to drive with a surprising amount of nuance.
The current Covid-19 outbreak is wreaking havoc around the globe. Over the last two weeks we’ve watched world economies shutter as more countries go from a wait and see approach to varying degrees of quarantine. Italy appears to be a turning point in response and as evidenced by the toilet paper hoarding, people are panicking. I’m not here to say whether this level of panic from...
2019 was a great season that solidified an upward trend in my racing and building on that momentum is the goal of the 2020 season. Looking at the results from the season opener with NASA Mid South at Memphis International Raceway, things are off to a great start.
Chris Simmons is a race car driver, instructor, business owner and all around gearhead. His passion for motorsport started in the drifting community and progressed into wheel to wheel racing of all kinds. When off track Chris can be found training and working on a myriad of projects. After a hiatus from writing, he is back to share his passion, knowledge and experience in regard to motorsports on and off the track.