Virtual Racing

by Stan Dale

The Naples/Ft Myers group suspended their regular September monthly meeting opting instead for a short road trip to Cape Coral to the home of member Jim Baker. Jim’s, son Bruce and daughter in-law Cathy hosted about 20 members in the home where we enjoyed plenty of coffee, donuts of all descriptions and other great food, not to mention great conversation. We had several new members in attendance and really appreciated sharing time with them. (Art Nor, Mario & Carol Villar and Jim Bottini). But the real reason for the visit was the virtual racing. Jim’s set-up is located in a building behind his home and is solely dedicated to virtual racing. This ain’t your old Nintendo or your grandkids X-Box! Jim is equipped to race in the big leagues of online racing. Following a ‘drivers briefing’, Jim turned us loose one-by-one to get in 5 hot-laps at Limerock Raceway. Easier said than done. Without spilling the beans on anyone specifically, suffice it to say we crashed our online car in every way a racecar can be crashed. We spun them out, crashed the retaining walls and even rolled them. And Yup, this writer crashed so hard that his racer caught on fire! So Embarrassing

Mike Schroeder turned the hottest lap in the rookie division and collected $5.00. Mike Griffis turned in the hottest lap in the experienced division. However, Jim & Bruce Baker put on a driving clinic with lap times that were truly at the professional level. Amazing experience! If the truth were known, everyone secretly came with the intention of showing they were the best of drivers. However, the technology was so advanced we were quickly humbled. And oh, if you were wondering who did best?….the guys or the girls it was a tie! While the guys had some faster laps, the girls had more successful laps without damage! (Hmmm?maybe there is something to that Nationwide Insurance commercial!)

Jim, thanks for opening your home to a bunch of car nuts! We truly enjoyed ourselves and we’re glad to know that at the end of the day all we had to do was hit the RESET BUTTON!