SSZ: My Simracing Journey 2025

Hello everybody, and welcome back to another edition of Steve’s Simracing Zone!

As we look back on 2025, and head into the new year, I figured I would review my simracing endeavours over the course of the past year, as I haven’t talked a whole lot about what went on with this in the last year aside from my Xtreme Scoring Indycar Championship campaign that I wrote about earlier in the year.

I started off the year with a one-off appearance with Velocity Motorsports (friends of a personal friend of mine) at the Daytona 24hr. I was easily 2-3s per lap faster than each of them, so I was just doing them a favour after plans for the race with the SimCast team fell through (we were leading after the 2nd hour, but had trouble in the overnight and retired the car).

Otherwise it was the same as what I had done in 2024; focusing on building my race craft on iRacing official races with the SimCast (Sebring 12hr, Portimao 1000km, 6hr of Watkins Glen and a top 10 in the Nurburgring 24), but this time I wanted to built up my oval ratings so I could take a run at the Indycar.

This, I accomplished in time for Season 2 of 2025 (starting in late spring). I decided to do a fixed setup race, where I didn’t do that bad on debut, finishing in the top 8 of 20 cars in top split.

I felt that I could really start to develop, but for whatever reason the official series weren’t very populated during good times I could spend racing, so I felt it wasn’t going to be very efficient to do this. At this point, I started looking for a hosted league on iRacing to give me that extra bit of competitive edge to push me along. That was when I found Xtreme Scoring and their Indycar championship, which you can read about in the link earlier.

After placing 2nd in that, and also having done a few iRacing special events with the SimCast team, I was starting to feel like I needed a change of scenery regarding who I was competing with. As I was the lone guy in the SimCast crew that was regularly doing prototypes and open wheelers, I wasn’t getting the same level of comradery or help in my development. It was at this point I started shopping around for teams that were competing on XMS to join (and bring my friend Louis along with me).

After talking to a bunch of teams, getting the chance to know them and getting a feel for how each would benefit me and Louis, we decided to join SpeedWerx Racing Team eSports (SRT eSports). If this name sounds familiar, this is the team that I was fiercely competing against in the XMS Indycar series (the Black and Green cars). I got to know them pretty well during that period and with the level of skill they had, coupled with their atmosphere, it was a great fit for us.

As this was going on, I was wrapping up my partial season in the IMSA-Style Ricmotech World Challenge (RWC) series in the Ferrari 499P as my last representation for the SimCast team. That went interestingly: The driver who was dominating the GTP class, was one that I competed against as well for a few rounds in the Indycar series, so I knew it was gonna be tough, but doable.

In the 5 races I did (of 8), I had 3 races where I either was crashed into or accidentally crashed out of. The others I finished on the podium, but I was quite off pace, and it was down to the car being quite terrible. iRacing made updates to the car for S2 that made it very slow and understeery, and I couldn’t get a good handle on it, but made the best I could.

After XMS cancelled the Indycar championship’s next season (just missed the minimum number of registrants), I decided to give the RWC a go full time in the GTP, this time in the Porsche 963 LMDh. That proved to be quite an excellent choice, as it turned out after the S4 update (after the first round), it was probably the best car of the GTP field. I had stiff competition, but with the defending champion taking a sabbatical, I knew I had a shot at the title.

After thinking I had pretty fast pace in practice for the first race at Road Atlanta, I qualified 3rd and finished 4th after a minor error with 10mins remaining. I went into the next round at Hockenheim and was the class of the field in qualifying, to get my first pole. I had pulled away a little bit, only to be taken out from the lead after a GTP car billiard-balled a GT3 car into me. Somehow, I got up to the lead again but got punted from behind by another car, and this time the damage was severe enough I had to pit. I ended up down the order.

Sebring was a wet race, and I qualified on pole again. I pulled out a 1 min lead before more unluckiness came my way, this time in the form of a computer glitch that made me lose all audio. I started missing shifts and just generally missing other audible cues. Unfortunately, this included a lockup that I didn’t catch in time, and I damaged the car in the tire barrier after skidding off the track in monsoon conditions. Because I had such a lead to begin with, I miraculously finished 3rd. The next round at Portimao, I had a boring race finishing 2nd.

The following race at Mexico I out qualified everyone by over half a second for pole! I had told myself that I needed to avoid a certain kerb on the opening lap on cold tires, as it was quite trecherous. Unfortunately, I did not heed my own advice, as I was forced onto that kerb having to defend position by another car and I spun and got damage. I pitted for repairs and proceeded to race a couple laps down. I had set the fastest laps and unlapped myself from a few other cars in the process. It was disappointing to finish low in the order, as I would have blitzed the field and won quite easily.

At this point I was thinking I was cursed. I was 3rd or 4th in the championship, but not a long ways off. I just needed to get some good results and claw myself back up to title contention.

The next race at Imola, I qualified on pole for the 4th time of the season. However, my race pace was not as strong as my one-lap pace and I ended up in 2nd spot. Crucially, I gained on all the drivers ahead of me (including one of my new teammates) to get into 2nd place, just 8 points off my teammate leading the championship. Nurburgring was much the same, although starting 2nd and finishing 4th. My teammate had some rough luck this time around and finished behind me in 5th, which meant the championship would go down to the wire at the finale at Spa-Francorchamps.

The whole week leading up to the race, I was happily hanging out with Louis and his wife, who were visiting myself and my wife at our house. This meant I didn’t get a whole lot of practice in until they left to go back home the afternoon before the race day. I spent that Sunday doing laps and trying to get to grips with the car and track combo.

I was expecting a tough battle, but it seemed that I found another gear in qualifying and grabbed pole for the 5th time in the season, with my teammate and title chaser in 3rd. They tucked in behind me early in the race, but I started to pull a gap. As it was, they would narrowly win the championship, but that was all I could do.

After the only round of pit stops, they got jumped by the cars in 3rd and 4th, which meant that if they couldn’t get back passed them, I would be champion if I went on to win the race. It ended up going my way, and I took the decisive victory (finally, my first RWC win ever, and on the year) and won the championship. Additionally, we won the teams title as well, so that was an excellent way to cap off the year for my simracing.

I will have to wait for my trophy to come in the mail, but at least I have my 2nd place trophy from the XMS Indycar series to keep me company for the time being!

I also competed in a few iRacing special events with my new team; getting a top 10 in both and Suzuka 1000km and Petit Le Mans and a bit of a trying race in the Indy 6hr.

Going into the New Year, as I type this, I am prepping to defend my title for the next season of the RWC series on XMS. It’s been such a wonderful back half of the year, my new team and teammates have been phenomenal! I can’t thank them enough for all the fun and help that they’ve given me to be able to achieve something like a championship victory in a very competitive series.

As for other things, I will be uploading a new simrig post to show off my changes and additions to my simracing setup in the new year. With that, I bid you all a wonderful holiday season, and a happy new year!

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