David Williams finishes 3rd in Intel GP Series World Final

David being interviewed after the race

 

During the period after the Euro finals leading up to the world finals, the US/Canada and Asia/Australia finals took place, with 4 and 2 drivers qualifying for the world finals from each race respectively, making up the 10 drivers to reach the world finals in total.

 

Before booking flights and travel for the events at CeBIT, Hannover, we were given an overview of the schedule, prizes and any other info we might need to plan things. Places 6-10 were all to be awarded a prize of $1300 each to cover travel costs, and since after booking everything and Intel providing a night in the nearby Copthorne Hotel free of charge the total cost for me came to only a few hundred Euro’s leaving me very happy to live within Europe!

 

Journey to Germany!

 

March the 2nd came along, and the first day of travelling began. I took a bus from Loughborough University very near from where I live to the train station, to then travel by rail down to London – Stansted Airport, where I would be flying to a freezing cold Bremen, Germany that evening. Everything went smoothly enough and soon I was in the relatively short Boeing 737-800 flight over the English Channel. I met up with Richard Crozier that evening, a fellow iRacer from Scotland who had flown in from Edinburgh to visit the show and spectate the race. We had a good chat and a couple of pints in a quiet Bremen Bar, with some Queen playing in the background (no  Rammstein!), and subsequently headed to bed too late given the upcoming racing to follow during the following days. I woke up around 7 am or so feeling a bit rough, so went back to sleep again, causing me to miss my intended train after having a very tasty breakfast. This wasn’t a big deal, since I took a tram to the station, and caught an hour later train to the Messe Laatzen station in Hannover, right next to the CeBIT exhibition. After travelling on moving walkways through a very long tunnel from the station I arrived at the entrance. It quickly became apparent that the show was absolutely massive, and after receiving a text from Richard who was already at the iRacing booth saying practice started at 2 pm, I used my free promo code ticket from the net to go inside the exhibition. After a long walk past some interesting building structures and a Mclaren SLR which had been doing doughnuts, I arrived at Hall 23, home to the Intel Extreme Masters events. The hall was huge and alive with noise and people. There were many booths and competitions throughout the hall for various other games, such as Counter-Strike, StarCraft 2 and Quake, but it didn’t take me long to navigate towards the sound of iRacing’s FW31, set up in twin F1 cockpits in a booth in front of a line of playseat cockpits and screens where we would be sat shortly practicing for the main race on the Friday.

 

Henrik Muller tries his luck in the iRacing Williams FW31 at Spa

 

The first person I recognized was Danny Engels, an iRacer / pro gamer from Germany, who I had a chat with about the event and the F1 booth we were standing next too. I believe he had already won an Intel CPU the day before by getting the fastest time around spa, but had a lot more competition this time from other sim racers there such as Marco Schade and Richard, who was trying to compensate for his travel costs ha! I had a go but didn’t get too involved; basically it felt like a max downforce full fuel setup with a forward brake bias, 200 degree steering and oversensitive pedal settings. FUN. The prize was pretty good though so I could see why Richard was trying very hard, and it was certainly attracting lots of attention from the public which was very cool to see.I would actually go as far to say that the iRacing areas were the most impressive booths in the hall; even more so personally when you saw your name above one of the screens set up for the Intel GP race.

 

We had been told in an email to meet at the Hotel for 2:30 pm, but since I wasn’t sure where it was and had other info saying practice started at 2 pm (on one of the Intel GP screens), I waited in the Intel hall. It was really tempting to have a fiddle with the cockpits while they sat there empty, but eventually the other iRacers all arrived, together with the very helpful Intel team including Don Bowden, and of course Otto Szebeni. We all introduced ourselves and accustomed ourselves with the playseats. We all had some issues with the peddles, in particular the steering column which obscured the brake pedal somewhat, so you had to either assign the brake to the clutch pedal, which I couldn’t get used to and kept locking up, or angle your leg around the column, which I think most drivers chose to do. It took most of us a good while to get comfortable in practice, with most of us struggling to hear the engine at times with all the noise in the hall despite headphones on maximum volume. It was an interesting experience to not only have your immediate surroundings buzzing with activity and many spectators, but also to be racing directly alongside your competitors, I was positioned between Greger and Mitchell McLeod for the event. Bastien Bartsch was the first of us to really show some very quick pace and was almost immediately in the low 1:18’s. By the end of practice I was quite happy with my best time of 1:18.28, since it put me close to Bastien and Greger, and infront of everyone else, and within 2 tenths of my PB from home.

 

Wyatt Gooden takes a time out

 

After practice we all hopped on a bus for the Copthorne Hotel, who Intel had generously covered the expenses for. I checked into my room, had a refreshing shower and headed to the bar to chat with everyone and have a few drinks. We then moved into the restaurant where we all more formally introduced ourselves, before having some pretty delicious food from the buffet. Most of us including myself then headed off to our rooms for a good night’s sleep before the race the next morning.

 

The Event

 

Having had a good sleep, I checked out of the hotel and we all met in the lobby to catch the bus back to CeBIT. As we were leaving I remember chatting to Wyatt Gooden who said it all felt familiar to the build up before one of his Jetta races in real life, which certainly made sense but was interesting to hear. After a 15 min journey to the exhibition again, we once again got down to business for the warmup session. Having familiarised ourselves the day before, it was much easier to turn some clean laps straight away.

 

Soon qualifying was upon us and it was time for things to really start hotting up. We had a 20 minute session, and for what felt like much of the session, I really struggled to get in even a half decent banker lap. With my name at the bottom of the standings I started to feel quite pressurized, but fortunately I had a good run of solid laps near the end, with a best of 1:18.312 to put me 3rd on the grid, behind Greger in 2nd and Bastien in 1st with a 1:17(!), and Ray starting just behind me.

 

With qualifying over it was immediately time to grid the cars. I had practiced some standing starts, so was surprised to see the safety car immediately ahead of us on the grid. I wasn’t going to complain though, since while a rolling start reduces the chance of action into T1 for spectators, it’s a definite benefit for drivers to relieve some tension and have a safer run into T1. As we came around the final corner of the warm-up lap, my nerves were at a max as the green lights came up. I think Bastien went a fraction before the lights which is perfectly legal and gave him a good jump on us immediately, but behind me Ray had a slightly better reaction, forcing me to defend my position into T2. We were all a bit cautious braking into T2 with the pressure of the event on us, and Ray held his line around the outside of me well, which gave him a better line for T3, dropping me briefly to 4th. We held it all together somehow through T3 and T4, running completely side by side, with me just about having the upper hand on the inside again coming into braking for T5. I managed to slot into 3rd once again through T5, as everyone behind bunched up and battled among themselves. At some point during the first lap, ESL TV pointed a large camera in each of our faces which served as a difficult distraction, but affected none of us in reality. I do remember have quite a scary moment exiting T6 on the opening lap though, getting a bit sideways and having the car snap about a little, but it cost minimal time. Coming to completion of lap 1, I once again had Ray close behind looking for a way past, forcing me to defend again down the main straight. This time I held him off better, and he was forced to slot in behind again after T2. I didn’t realise until after the race, but on lap 2 Bastien made a small but costly error in the deadly T6, allowing Greger through in the run up to the corkscrew. For the next few laps I struggled to settle down into a rhythm, with Ray continuing to pressurize and feature prominently in my mirrors.

 

At this stage the top 2 were still well within my sights, so I set about trying to keep up with them in case either of them had a mistake. I started to see the gap to Ray behind grow slowly as the laps passed, but at the same time the gap to the leaders increased at a similar rate. The next 20 or so laps were really about endurance and forcing yourself to keep focus, though in the environment we were in it was pretty tough. A few minor mistakes throughout the race prevented me from gaining anything to the leaders, though after the race it was pleasing to see my fastest lap was around a tenth off the best overall, from Greger. I had one final major moment before the race ended, having just lapped Wyatt who unfortunately for him had an incident filled race, where once again through T6 I turned in a little too early and this time had to use the brakes to save it. Fortunately though it wasn’t significant enough to affect my race, and after a long 30 laps, I crossed the line to secure 3rd and a podium. Obviously I was massively relieved and happy with the result, and leaned across to congratulate Greger on his brilliant win.

 

Dave 'smiles' for the camera

 

After the race many spectators and fellow iRacers congratulated us, and Greger ,  Bastien and I were quickly guided to the back of the stage, where we were given a quick rundown of the proceedings on the stage. We met the gorgeous Razor girls, and soon I was called out first onto the stage with one of them, after Don had finished his interview. I was presented with my cheque and had a short interview with the host of the show. Bastien and Greger followed straight after and received their cheques too. From this point on we spent what felt like a very long time having various photographs taken where we were continuously told off for not looking happy enough. :D I’m pretty sure we were all extremely happy; it’s just difficult to hold a smile continuously, especially if your name is Greger Huttu.

 

It was great to see and chat to after the race so many faces for many names I knew and had raced against online during the past few years. I had a couple of hours before I had to leave to catch my train, so I had another go on the F1 booth just the other side of our playseat cockpits. This time I managed a mid 1:53, which sounds terrible until you consider the issues I mentioned earlier, and was around a second off the best, held by I think Richard at that point. After loitering about for another hour or so, I had a small chat with Alex Rossi, who was driving in the cockpit I used for the race. He was struggling a little to get comfortable with the sim, so I tried to help him out a bit. Finally I said goodbye to everyone there, and began my return journey. I arrived home late that night after the various trains and flight and flopped onto the sofa.

 

The finalists, with Intel organiser Don Bowden far left and pro racing driver Alexander Rossi far right

 

I want to say a massive thanks to the guys at Intel and iRacing for organising this amazing event. It’s been fantastic to meet everyone and represent sim racing so well in the gaming world. I really hope more events like this can happen in the near future, and look forward to competing or spectating!

 

Big thanks to Roderic for letting us use his photographs from the event!