The Road to the Roar

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 "finishing" next year to competing in the 2026 Roar in a more competitive role. Then I would take part in the 24 Hours of Daytona. For this I would need to assemble a team.
​The Sim Team Architects
​Racing is rarely a solo endeavor. While I was scouting for a crew of drivers, my son Parker was busy cutting his teeth at the 12 Hours of Bathurst and Sebring with Primetime Racing. But he soon found out they only raced the winter events. Parker would soon be on his own. Thats when the vision became clear: we needed our own banner. Parker coined it GO Racing Team, and we set our sights on the Nürburgring 24 in June.
​Finding teammates is tough when you’re "low iRating" drivers. Experience is the currency of the sim world, and we were broke. That changed when we met Marius Pertorius of El’ Slow Mo’s. Through his "Sim Team Architects" program, we found a home. In GT3 cars we spent the remainder of 2025 racing as, GO Race Team by El’ Slow Mo’s, honing our skills for the big stage in January. We worked with new drivers from around the world. Competing in events such as the 24 hrs of LeMans and Petite LeMans (10 hours at Road Atlanta) .
​No Rest for the Determined.
​The road to Daytona officially begins after Petit Le Mans in November. We decided ESM GO Racing Team would compete in the LMP2 class for 2026. The plan became known as the ESM IMSA Challenge. It will run concurrent to the real life 2026 IMSA weather tech championship. Our drivers and teams will compare championship points against the real drivers and teams to see where we stack up. 
I invested in the Dallara P217 LMP2. I studied the owners manual cover-to-cover to build a competitive setup and know the cars operating systems inside and out. But as December arrived,I knew that I would need to split my focus between the Roar and the 24. A test session in my old Cayman GT4 revealed a harsh truth: the muscle memory from the GT3s I’d been driving the past 10 months didn’t translate. My two other choices were the lower horsepower, front wheel drive TCR cars. Or the LigierJS P320 (LMP3)​I needed a bridge. The LMP3 would be that bridge for $11.99. 
It took forty five minutes and a few setup changes but I found my rhythm. Its aerodynamic profile and handling characteristics mirrored the LMP2 enough to get me back in the game. I was ready for the Roar. Was the Roar ready for me?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Track Time In Sim

Image
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...
Read more

I'm an endurance racer.

           My 24 hour race. “ Wait, why on earth would you want to play a computer game for 24 hours"? If you are a sim racer, you've gotten that question at work or your latest social gathering. If you aren't the one getting that question, then chances are you have been the one asking. Your sim racer friend will quickly point out they don't drive the entire 24 hours.  Sim racing happens around the world. From America, to Southeast Asia if you have an internet connection and a decent PC you can sim  race.  We are racing on our (at home) simulators with racing enthusiasts from around the globe, in real time.  Virtual racing uses programs such as iRacing, Assetto Corse and, Le Mans Ultimate. These programs are much more than games. Programmers work tediously to laser scan each track. Their goal is to re-create a visual and physical program for every bump and, every corner. The cars are also meticulously re created right down to aerodynamic...
Read more