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The Setup Part III

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The Hunger to Build: My personal success at the 2026 24 Hours of Daytona didn't begin on the high banks of the Speedway; it began with a hunger to build a dependable setup. While the rest of the team looked to Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, my focus shifted to the crown jewel of the IMSA WeatherTech Endurance Series. The first leg of my quest was to learn how people choose where to get their paid setups. My questions were simple: Where did you get this setup? Why did you choose this setup shop or source? How do you know that you are getting a good setup? As I dove into the world of paid setups I discovered a "Wild West" of inconsistent quality. When asking fellow drivers how they chose their sources or verifiy quality, the answers were unsettling. One driver noted, "Most setups are actually shared—purchased then passed around." More concerning was the response to how they knew a setup was going to be good: "I don’t really know. Some are good, some are reall...
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The Setup: Part II

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Team Architecture:   The 2025 "Roar Before the 24" sparked my interest in endurance racing. The cornerstone of any endurance racer’s career is a good team, and I found mine with El Slow Mo’s. In searching for endurance teammates, I met Marius Pretorius, the founder and architect of the Sim Teams’ Architect (STA) program. He designed it to match like-minded drivers to teams. In my case, I wasn’t looking for a top-tier team; I wanted to "manage expectations" in 2025. This more laid-back approach meant I was looking to simply enjoy the experience of a 24-hour race. Meet the team: ​Our first endurance event was the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It didn’t take long for the team to be assembled. A typical team for a 24-hour race needs three to six drivers; we had five. Parker was a non-negotiable partner because we share one sim rig. With loading times taking around two minutes, it’s impossible to switch between our respective iRacing accounts without losing time during a pit ...
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The Setup: Part 1

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The Setup: Part I In iRacing, the car physics models are built to mirror actual vehicles. This means setups are a crucial aspect of clocking competitive laps. Generally, there are three ways to obtain a setup: iRacing Base Setups: iRacing includes generic - High, Medium, and Low downforce setups, as well as specific configurations for the most common tracks. Buying a Setup: As iRacing has evolved and become more competitive, fast and "no-hassle" professional setups have become a hot commodity. Building Your Own: This requires a basic knowledge of engineering and physics—or, in my case, simply the desire to learn. The Beginner: Drivers typically start their journey in Fixed Setup races. These races are usually shorter—often lasting around 15 minutes—with no caution flags. If you wreck, you’d better get out of the way, because the race is going on with or without you. However, you have one fast repair. Just get to your pit box. Magically your car is bran...
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ESM GO 24 Hours of Daytona

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ESM GO 24 Hours of Daytona By Luke Biello In the world of endurance sim racing, the clock is both your greatest ally and your most relentless enemy. For the crew of the ESM GO Rapid Snails—Luke Biello, Parker Biello, Nick Leo, Nick Alexander, and Marius Pretorius—the 24 Hours of Daytona wasn't just a test of speed; it was an exercise in endurance and  coordination. The Pre-Race Formula Before the green flag even drops, the logistics are a whirlwind of time zones, driver availability, and fuel calculations. With a roster spanning the USA, the UK, and South Africa, the team possessed a truly international flair. While the US crew saw a race start time of 2:38 AM EST, Nick A. and Marius were already well into their morning at 7:38 AM and 8:38 AM. The strategy was set: 32 total fuel stints for the LMP2, with each tank lasting approximately 45 minutes. To maximize focus and minimize the "musical chairs" of driver swaps, the team elected to run double stints, meaning each drive...
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The Roar. "In sim racing, special events are like Christmas to a child. You don't count days; you count 'how many more sleeps' until the green flag." ​Race Day: Pain and Precision. ​Race day arrived with a throbbing pain—literally. I woke up battling a week-long toothache that required an emergency root canal scheduled the day prior. The procedure was just hours before the green flag. By 5:00 PM, I sat in my rig, nervous with anticipation. Parker took his place as my strategist, manning a multi-screen command center running iTelemetry and iPlanner.​The preparation paid off. I stunned myself by hovering in the top 10 during practice and ultimately qualifying P7. Never in an endurance event had I sat on the grid able to see the leader. This put me at a huge advantage for the start of the race. The very reason I started from the pits last year was to avoid the melee that happens when 60 cars funnel off the NASCAR tri-oval onto the infield for the sharp left-hander of Turn 1. In one year, I could see measurable progress.​ Smooth Operator: ​My heart was fluttering with nervousness and excitement. The pace car started its roll through the Le Mans chicane. As the front of the pack rolled through, I felt like I could reach out of the cockpit and touch the leader's car. Questions started to weigh on my mind: Could I actually make it through Turn 1 with the leaders? Would I be able to pull away from the meat of the sixty-car sandwich?​The pace car pulled off. The leader took off a split second before the green. There was a gap between my car and the one in front of me. “Smooth, just be smooth,” I told myself. Just like an accordion, we fluidly slinked back together in Turn 1. I was able to ease past P8 in the esses, and the car stuck to the apex at the International Horseshoe. The rest of the lap came to me smoothly and naturally.​ The Ghost in the Machine​: By Lap 7, I was stalking P6 and P5, feeling that a podium could actually be within reach. Then, the nightmare happened: Packet Loss! My screen froze. Every sim racer has been there—literally fractions of a second frozen in the digital world, knowing the other side is not going to look like what you drove into. In the digital world, packet loss is the equivalent of a hanging throttle; you don't know if it will release or if this is the end. When the data packet reconnected, I was careening towards the West Horseshoe barrier. I was able to slow down significantly, but there was not enough time to correct the four-wheel slide through the grass.​I limped back to the pits for six minutes of repairs, rejoining the field in 14th place, laps down. In that moment, I had a choice: quit or climb. Parker reassured me of what I knew I had to do, and I began the climb. Leveraging a high attrition rate combined with relentless consistency, I picked off spots one by one. By Lap 51, after my final stop, I had broken back into the top 10.​The Finish Line​When the checkered flag waved, I crossed the line in P7.​While the "what ifs" of the packet loss linger, I view it like a mechanical failure in the physical world—a factor beyond the driver's control. Moving from 19th last year to a hard-fought 7th this year represents a massive leap in my race craft.​The weekend ended on a high note: acting as strategist for Parker during his Saturday slot. He drove a masterful race, qualifying P3 and finishing on the second step of the podium in P2.​The "Road to the Roar" was bumpy, but GO Racing Team has officially arrived. Next stop? The 24.

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The Road to the Roar

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The Road to the Roar ​In the world of sim racing, the "Roar Before the 24" isn’t just a race; it’s the first on the special event calendar each year. For many, it’s the gateway to the legendary 24 Hours of Daytona. The Roar is your last chance to hone your racing skills at the famed Daytona road course before the big day. But for me, this year’s journey was one of transformation from a green rookie without a team. To a driver learning race craft and learning how to adjust to racing on an endurance team.  ​ A Year of Transformation ​To understand the weight of this year’s event, you have to look back at 2025. My first attempt at the Roar was a baptism by fire. With fewer than 15 sports car races under my belt, I decided not to attempt qualifying. Instead I would start 46th from the pits in my Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. ​Against the odds, I survived the grueling 84-minute sprint, clawing my way up to a respectable 19th. That finish sparked a fire. My goal shifted from merely ...
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Track Time In Sim

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If you ask someone who races on the track or in a sim what they wish they had more of, you will get answers like horsepower, practice, and money. How this makes them faster is a simple equation: Horsepower + Track Time = Speed, and Speed ÷ Practice Laps = Track Time. It always comes back to track time and we cannot get enough of it. When a driver is no longer able to perform at peak performance—or if they never quite make it to the top tier of their sport—someone will inevitably ask, "Why do you keep competing?" The answer is the same every time: "I love to be behind the wheel. I just want to keep driving." It’s the sound of the car firing up, the smell of fuel and burning rubber, the satisfaction of hitting your braking point and the apex at the exact same location, lap after lap. It is knowing that your last lap was a few tenths of a second slower without even needing a stopwatch. It becomes a sixth sense. Just like losing the sense of touch, sight, sm...
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