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After which on Sunday, I received to stroll the grid, the place the automobiles are lined up on the monitor in the course of the pre-race rituals: the introductions of the drivers, the Purdue College marching band, the singing of “Again Residence in Indiana,” the Thunderbirds’ flyover.
The monitor is scorching. The drivers put on not solely the heavy gloves, but in addition a fireproof swimsuit, boots, balaclava and crash helmet. Some have particular cooling tools, however when each pound issues … there’s a number of sweating happening.
Watching the race on replay at house on Memorial Day, I could not assist however marvel that the steering wheel I noticed on TV was precisely just like the one I had used within the simulator. (Sure, I do know that is the purpose of the simulator, however nonetheless — there it was!) Davide had confirmed me that the tachometer was successfully displayed by lights throughout the highest of the wheel. When the blue ones flash all throughout the proper aspect, it is time to upshift. The professionals, by anticipation or reflex, clicked it up on the prompt the lights clicked on.
That wasn’t how I recalled my efficiency.
However I labored it alongside, shifting all the way down to fourth gear on turns 1 and three, then again as much as fifth on the straights.
“Hey, Jamie, about two laps to go,” Davide mentioned. “If you wish to, give it a shot at full throttle and simply drive.”
Properly, OK. What is the worst that would occur?
Even when I wrecked and flipped the automotive, all of the simulator would do is sink to the entry platform. It’s an incredible simulator, however that is what it’s. There is not any replicating the precise hazard confronted by drivers at excessive speeds. Even with superb security developments, the game has dangers on a special stage than say, tennis or basketball.
So I left it in fifth gear and tried to remain on the monitor as I stored my foot floored.
Properly, I tried to maintain my foot floored. Chuck Schifsky, spokesman for Honda and Acura racing, commented later that the displays revealed a “confidence elevate” — taking my foot up a little bit out of concern.
It wasn’t insecurity, I advised him; it was fatigue and discomfort. I needed to regulate my foot after jamming my leg down for thus lengthy — which, once more, was solely a couple of tenth of Sunday’s race, little greater than half the gap a driver sometimes goes on a tank of gas between pit stops.
With no different automobiles on the digital monitor, I did not have to fret about somebody creating funky air disturbances that would throw me off. However there was additionally nobody for me to draft off of. (And the way laborious is that to truly do at full pace?)
The Honda Efficiency Improvement workers mentioned the theoretical finest lap underneath my simulated circumstances can be 221 mph.
My final lap was 218.03.
And now I need to attempt to chase down these final three mph. …
Perhaps in my subsequent lifetime.
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