The Chicane Podcast
Welcome to the Chicane Podcast, keeping you up to date on everything sim racing. As we venture into this dynamic realm of esports and virtual racing, we'll be exploring a variety of topics, from the cutting-edge gear that's transforming the way we race to the newest games, hardware and software that are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in this virtual sport. We'll also be giving you an inside look into the lives of some of the top virtual racers in the world, through in-depth interviews that will give you a unique perspective on what it's like to compete at the highest level in this rapidly evolving eSport. So, buckle up and get ready for an unforgettable ride as we take you right into the cockpit of this exciting digital racing world.
The Chicane Podcast
Daniel Morad's Path to Glory
What does it take to navigate the high-stakes world of professional racing? Join us on the Chicane Podcast as we sit down with the extraordinary Daniel Morad, a celebrated GT3 and GT4 driver and the brain behind the lifestyle brand Moradness. From the moment his father gifted him a go-kart at the tender age of eight, Daniel’s journey has been nothing short of inspiring. He opens up about the financial challenges, the unwavering support from go-kart teams, and the dedication required to claim 13 national titles in karting. His story is one of relentless pursuit, defining the true essence of passion-driven success.
Ever wondered how confidence can make or break a career in racing? Daniel shares personal experiences of overcoming setbacks, including a pivotal hiatus that led to a rewarding stint in driver coaching. This chapter highlights the importance of mental fortitude and the craft of creating your own luck. We also explore the intricate balancing act of a professional race car driver’s life, touching on the intense financial pressures and the maturity needed to thrive. Daniel’s reflections on European GT racing and the transition from single-seaters to GTs offer valuable insights for aspiring racers.
If you think sim racing is just a game, think again. Daniel guides us through the world of sim racing, where fun meets functionality, and discusses how a sturdy sim racing rig can make all the difference. We compare different racing simulators, examine the nuances between GT3 and GT4 cars, and delve into the significant impact of a supportive racing community. Wrapping up with the emotional recount of his double Daytona victory, Daniel leaves us with heartfelt stories that underscore the joy and triumph of racing—both virtual and real. Join us for an episode brimming with motivation, practical advice, and a genuine love for the sport.
Check out https://www.moradness.com and use CHICANE15 for 15% off your order!
Follow Daniel Morad's social platforms below:
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https://www.discord.gg/moradness
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https://www.danielmorad.com
Youtube Clip of Daniel Morad Rights:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CKgaceTBmkc
Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com
Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing
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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
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The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly, jeff Smart and Mr Daniel Morad, the creator of Moradness, the GT3 and GT4 driver, himself joining us today on the show. How's everybody doing?
Daniel:I'm doing excellent.
Erick:We're in for a banger today, I don't even know what time it is I am jet lag.
Jason:What is jet lag? Oh, you're jet lag. I hear you, buddy, so yeah, I actually came back.
Daniel:I was in china two weeks ago, in italy last week, um so just traveling all over the world wow, man, so you were in china and you were also in Italy, right as well, you were Monza.
Jason:Yeah, monza, damn man.
Jeff:Yeah, you know what, dude? There's not too many people that are going to feel sorry for you.
Daniel:No, you don't need to. I'm not going to lie. It's the dream, it's what I've worked hard for With racing. It's so challenging because there's it's it's a difficult sport, it's really a wealthy person sport and it's getting. It's going more in that direction and it's actually really nice that I made it with very, very minimal family support, like they did as much as they could, not minimal. They literally put everything there, their whole life they dedicated to me. I put my parents in a bad spot, you know, just to keep me going, and I had a lot of great support along along the years. But this is the culmination of all that hard work and sacrifice and my parents are still recovering. You know they're doing well now but honestly, it was honestly I owe a lot to them. They really did sacrifice so much for me, as much as they could. But yeah, racing's tough and this is the dream. I wanted to be busy this year. It's like 19 race weekends, so, plus testing, it's a lot.
Erick:That's beautiful man. I love it. I'm sure your parents are proud of you, dude.
Daniel:Oh, super proud. I'm so thankful for everything as well. Yeah, it's tough. It's weird because in racing you have this like there's a stigma right. They think people from the outside think that every driver is a paying driver and everyone has the same cookie cutter story. But everyone's story is a little bit different, so I'm sure we're going to talk about it a little bit today. But yeah, everyone's story is different how they started, what their path is to get to where they are and, at the end of the day, the goal is to make a living doing this and happy to be able to do that.
Jeff:All right, daniel, you know you created a perfect transition for us, so why don't you jump in and talk to us about how you got into motorsports and how you got to where you are today?
Daniel:Yeah, well, briefly, I started racing when I was eight years old 1998, a while ago and never intended to do this as a profession, just really loved sports. So, yeah, my dad got me a go-kart for my eighth birthday like a used kart. He went karting with some friends and thought it'd be fun for me, so we just drove up and down the street. Eventually we're like, okay, this is a bit dangerous, there's some cars and we took it to the local racetrack or go-kart track and yeah, I just really loved doing that with with my family.
Daniel:After school we'd go to the track, do some practice laps and then I joined the local racing league and straight away picked up on it and was successful, started winning, and one thing led to another and got picked up by some go-kart teams and they started covering everything. So that was really helpful for for my family, of course, because you know my parents were both working and, um, coming from a working class family, so they put as much as they could into it. But got the support from some, uh, go-kart teams was winning for them, which was the most important thing. If you're winning, then you're selling product, so that's kind of the business side of it. They saw the opportunity with a driver that was capable of winning in their product and then they'd turn around and flip my stuff to different customers and sell it as race winning product and that's really how I kept my career going in go-karting and um was pretty successful in karting 13 national titles in eight years of karting Wow, got scooped up by um. Well, actually got invited to try out for the BMW junior.
Jason:And those were straight, right, then what's that? Those were straight wins like every, every, every season. Yeah.
Daniel:So, uh, I would do various championships and carding throughout the us and canada, so in one season. So the most successful year I had was 2004. I was 14 years old and that was four for four. So all four championships. I entered national championships.
Daniel:We won all four of them, wow that's when I got the attention of some like news publications, and they actually had this scholarship program where they would send a successful carter over to europe to try out for this. You know bmw junior team. At the time it was the formula bmw series. They had four different championships across the world. So there was the us, europe, asia and the uk. So of course I went to go try out for the us championship to get a scholarship. I ended up winning it. Um, there's 120 drivers they submit their entries to, I think maybe like 40 go and then four get selected. Wow, so I was one of the four guys but we turned it down because we didn't have the funding they only partially subsidized the year man, so we couldn't make it happen.
Daniel:I couldn't go car racing, so the first year we declined it, went back again, got an invite, won it again. Also couldn't accept it because we were trying to get the money together but we couldn't do it.
Jason:So can I, if I may? So what happens when you decline it right you win the championship.
Daniel:You go to the next guy.
Jason:It just goes to P2? Yeah.
Daniel:Well, it's like there's four people they have in mind, then it will just go to the next guy on the list. Okay, but actually that year where we declined it the second time, I ended up racing in the series because we had a family friend. That was like no, you know, you have to do this and ended up supporting the uh, the, the effort so paid for my first year of car racing Wow.
Erick:That's pretty cool.
Daniel:Really huge and I'm still a friend of the family today. Um, yeah, oh, a lot to to to this guy. Well, I don't know if I should say his name, I don't know if he wants to be mentioned publicly kind of a low key guy, but yeah, it just gave me that you know who you are.
Jason:You know who you are.
Daniel:Yeah, it was still very much a part of our lives and ended up winning the rookie championship that year, won the first race weekend ever, so got into the series and won the first race weekend at Mid-Ohio from 12th on the grid, and it was in the rain actually as well. By turn two I was already second and by turn four leading. Sounds like iRacing or something ended up exiting turn two. I'm just like how is this happening right now?
Daniel:so that was great and ended up winning the rookie championship that year. And then BMW gave me that scholarship at the end of the year for winning the rookie title. So the following season I won the overall championship. Red Bull picked me up mid-year as a red bull junior in the f1 program. Um, but yeah, got dropped from it at the end of the season after breaking a record for most wins in the year winning the title. So just kind of a business decision that's crazy and it is what.
Daniel:It is right, that's racing for you. But bumped around, did a few other things a1, gp, gp3 stopped racing for four years, got back into it and, uh, got into gts. That was an interesting story actually. How you know, getting back into gts after four years that must have felt amazing, getting into it like it's unheard of right. You don't stop racing for four years and get that second opportunity. Did they change?
Jason:much from like the four-year period, like from the ones I changed for sure, because I think I matured.
Daniel:I would say when I was younger I was very, very shy and I also I had like this quiet confidence where you know, I I trusted, I believed in myself. But through all the, the politics and the business, I think the thing that struck me the most was actually after I won the formerly BMW title got dropped. That's when my whole world kind of crumbled because I realized that the F1 dream is not going to happen and I was like how can this happen?
Jason:Oh, so the dream was F1 then from the start.
Daniel:Oh for sure, yeah that's what I was aiming for, but you know, you think you're young. You're 17 years old. It's not over yet, man.
Jason:I don't know there years old.
Erick:It's not over yet, man, I don't know.
Daniel:There's no chance, I'm 30, I mean look at lance stroll if he can yeah, he's just saying yeah, exactly, look, you know he he's doing great, honestly he's. I think people rip on drivers from the outside but like they're all good, every f1 driver you see I know matter what they're actually all.
Jason:good, that checks out.
Daniel:Just some of them have better opportunities than others, true Financially.
Jeff:Can I ask kind of a follow-up question before you move on? It's eye-opening already what you're talking about, how you are one, the championship that you are in, but get dropped from your sponsorship. What is that? I mean, do you ever find out? Why did they give you, you know, unfiltered feedback? Or is it read between the lines?
Daniel:Yeah, I got a one line email from helmet Marco saying that I'm not on the team anymore. That's how I got released from my contract. So, yeah, it's just like it was really shocking to me because you know, you're young, you're seven, 17, seven, seventeen years old. It's. It's tough to cope with that and you're just wondering, like I've done everything right one, everything I could on the professional side. So like what is it? So? Then confidence gets hit and that's kind of like that was the downfall your brain, your, your, your mind.
Jason:Well, you can't shut that off.
Daniel:I know for sure it's like it's trauma right like, yeah, you can't shut it off.
Jason:Like what's wrong? Is it me, is it the car? Like what?
Daniel:is it? You know? Yeah, then you just lose that. That that, uh, racing is all about confidence. Sports is all about confidence. That's why, you see, you know athletes when they're, when they're in the groove, when they're you know on a roll, whether it's baseball, soccer, football, whatever it is when they're feeling it. It's that like quiet confidence, that subconscious instinct that you have in the zone, your confidence is smashed.
Daniel:then you start to second guess and doubt yourself and when you're in a sport that is so fast paced and every millisecond counts, you just don't make the right judgment call in certain situations. Maybe it's that one qualifying lap where you need to nail every single apex and you miss it by a little bit, and it's the difference between pole position and 10th, and that changes the whole outlook on everything you're doing in a season. And 10th and that changes the whole outlook on everything you're doing in a season. So confidence gone really affected my my driving in the um.
Daniel:The following seasons that I I got the opportunities to drive in and, yeah, I ended up stopping for four years doing some driver coaching, just trying to stay active and make a living, because at this point I was making no money and my parents sacrificed everything for me and it's like, okay, well, we got to turn this opportunity into some sort of financial income, so started doing some driver coaching and manufacturer programs and driver coaching for gts no so I was doing like consumer driver coaching, like with, so I did the audi driving experience in canada.
Daniel:That was the big no, so I was doing like consumer driver coaching, like with, so I did the audi driving experience in canada. That was the big project that I was working on. That was one of the four instructors in canada for the audi driving experience that's awesome man yeah.
Daniel:So it was like a drastic change, like, okay, this is real, real life now. So the dream of racing is done and I'm in a parking lot kicking some cones. But you know what? It's funny because in life you never know what opportunity lies in front of you. Right, and that was like a perfect situation for me, because I was really shy, I didn't have very good social skills and that was what I needed to get out of my shell, learn how to speak to people in a public setting, gain my confidence back, because when you're speaking in a group of 50 people successful businessmen and women you need to command the room. Mentor, who showed me kind of how to communicate with the group and command a group of 50 or 100 people, and I just emulated his style and put in my own little twist. That helped me a lot.
Daniel:So first year was a bit rough. Second year I learned how to develop my own skills. Third year was pretty smooth. Fourth year I did this I started doing product presentations with you know, dealership presentations of new cars, car unveilings, a thousand people in a dealership and speaking in front of everyone displaying the cars and this kind of stuff. So it was a really, really good learning experience for me, gained a lot of confidence and arguably, if without that I wouldn't be able to get back into racing, because that gave me the confidence to start calling teams and just like cold calling, and I wasn't afraid of rejection. I was like whatever, what's gonna happen? Like they're gonna say no. I called one team. They said no.
Daniel:I was like, okay, next, next one next one, yeah and obviously I strategically started planning out the phone calls to teams where I saw that there were opportunities where they were putting young, young, talented drivers in the seat. And yeah, the second team I called. They were super interested because funny enough that formerly BMW championship where I was a Red Bull driver and they dropped me like well, anyone that wins that championship must be worth our time because they know the names that have come through there. So with that I got a test and in that test I unofficially broke the lap record at most sport in a porsche cup car, first time driving it ever in 10 laps. Yeah, I knew the track. Thank goodness it's my home track, your first time, though that is first first run, first run in the car lap record.
Daniel:Unofficially it was a cold day, so so I'll get you, get out, you're like what it was perfect situation yeah, so the engineer was probably like with a clipboard, like what? Yeah, it was totally old school team owner on the long chair with a stopwatch, actually with his daytona clicking away. Um, that's cool. So yeah, and the team owner ended up giving me his car to race, which was so awesome and I would have never picked up the phone if it wasn't for doing that audi driving experience and learning how to speak to people publicly.
Daniel:So kind of funny how life takes you in a weird path. Right, you always think why me Like people when they have bad situations handed to them. Like, oh man, why is it always me? If you always question that and you're always like negative about any situation that's in front of you, you'll never progress in life. So for me, I had these like this moment where I was like man, this sucks, like everything's going wrong. But I stopped the pity party and I started focusing on the positivity and like what I can do to build my future. And then good things start happening. Right, when you start focusing on the positivity, it just snowballs.
Daniel:Yeah, it's funny, it's some sort of energy that you exude when you, when you focus on positivity, then positivity comes back and and that can be applied to just life in general.
Jason:Like you said, it's not just racing, it's, it's everything, it's a daily thing say oh, this guy's so lucky.
Daniel:Oh man, so much luck you. I feel like you make your own luck to a certain extent definitely because, if I self-reflect in my early years of racing when I was younger, yeah, sure, I was quick and I was doing everything right and I was winning, but I was like Swiss cheese I had so many holes. You still have to have the talent, though I think yeah, no matter what Talent, is the admission ticket? Yes, exactly.
Jason:That's the ticket to get you in Now, or what like talent is the admission ticket? Yes, exactly, that's the ticket to get you in.
Daniel:but now, what do you do with show? Yeah, exactly so. So, um, yeah, like I said, there were gaping holes in in the total package, so it's something that I developed later, or a bit slower than maybe I would have liked to, but in the end it's all happening properly, right? Everything happens for a reason, and I'm I'm on the path that I'm supposed to be on.
Jason:That's awesome. I'm really that's awesome, man, I'd love to hear that.
Erick:Yeah, you know what that actually. Um, brings me to our next question, because you're talking about the things that you don't know, that you're missing, that you need to kind of fill you out as a person. What's the aspect of being a professional race car driver that you think most people don't know or understand or overlook? Because obviously you got to have the skills, yeah, but are there any other aspects of being a driver that you know, you think people don't really notice, or kind of behind the scenes?
Daniel:yeah, I think the there's so much stress in terms of when you're on the development path, the finances, and I think early on it was really challenging because you have to think in the back of your mind if I, if I stick my nose in and break the wing like my season's over those kind of things, you, you don't really get in sim racing. Sim racing, people just straight line you and and you to the moon, and then you start yelling at each other and dropping the F-bomb and then you move on.
Daniel:But this kind of stuff in real life it really plays in the back of your mind, especially when you're younger and there's a lot of money at stake and a mistake can cost so much. So I would say that's one aspect that you don't really think about. Just the business side. There's a lot of pressure. There's sometimes unnecessary pressure. So just for example, when I was a Red Bull driver, I would be winning races and I'd come off the track winning and I'd get a call asking why I didn't win by a bigger margin, things like that.
Jason:Oh wow, it was just so strange. So winning wasn't enough for them. Wow, no well I don't know.
Daniel:Here's the thing. I think that winning is enough, but it's how you cope with certain situations and I think that there's so much pressure in racing it's so dangerous. Not that I think about how dangerous it is, I just do what I do and obviously I don't want to damage anything, because not only in my younger years would it cost my sponsors, or maybe I had a certain amount of budget for a season from sponsors or from a team, and if you smash the car, then boom, budget gone, then you don't finish, you're done for the year and so many young drivers end up having to stop mid-season because of things like that happening. But yeah, those are that's wild man pressures that you have to deal with.
Daniel:Imagine as a 15, 16, 17 year old. You're not even finished, you're midway through high school. You're having to deal with high pressure situations. You know kids these days it's different, like I feel like I was way more mature for my age when I was young, compared to what I experienced, like through sim racing, let's say, because there's a lot of young kids in sim racing and they think that they're all that, but really when they go into real life, reality hits them hard. Yeah. So you know, nobody knows what anybody goes through. I've been through so much and having to deal with all that kind of pressure, and nowadays I'm enjoying myself. There's still a lot of pressure, especially, for instance, when I race in Europe.
Jason:It's the highest level oh, it's a different ball game, in my opinion I think it's the hardest it's.
Daniel:I mean, maybe it's controversial, maybe because I'm in it, I'm going to say it's more difficult than f1.
Daniel:But no, honestly, if you look at the sro world challenge, gt world challenge, europe, there's 50 to 60 cars all factory drivers, in every single car, especially the top 20. It's like 20 cars, three drivers per car. If 60 of the best factory drivers from each mark entered, guys that should have could have made into f1. They didn't have the money or the situation line up for them. And you know we're representing there's two cars representing mercedes amg and I'm in one of them, so there's a lot of pressure right you have to perform so quick question tracks I'm going to.
Daniel:it's my first time going to them, that's wild, so it's difficult, right? You get a handful of laps and it's like boom, okay, time for quality. You have one lap because you have heated tires and tires and you got to go. You got to go, you got to go.
Jason:I do have a question on that, though. You mentioned that most of the drivers you know their dream is their ultimate dream is to, you know was F1. So I didn't know that about GT racers. I thought that that was their passion and I would separate the two. So it's kind of interesting to hear that.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, most drivers, I would say I grew up racing against and now we're racing GTs together or against each other. But I would say 90% of the GT drivers prototype drivers are all coming from single-seaters. I would say 90% of the GT drivers prototype drivers are all coming from single-seaters. It's changing a little bit now because of things like the Porsche Carrera Cup and these kind of series where they're great development series. That's where I came from Porsche Carrera Cup or GT3 Cup, and winning that title gave me the opportunity to do Daytona, for instance, and win Daytona the first time in 2016.
Jason:Hey, congratulations, that was super crucial.
Daniel:That was really, really important and so many drivers have gone through it, whether it was that or maybe even just transitioning from single seaters into GT3 directly. But a lot of them started in single seaters and then found a roadblock and like, ok, can't progress anymore, there's no future, they'll get to F3, f2. It's like there's no, there's no door open here, so they hit it go to DTM, go to, you know, do some prototypes GTs.
Daniel:They get scooped up by manufacturers. So I think that was kind of like. The big mistake I made when I was young is I was so fixated on f1 and straight out of the formula bmw series I had an opportunity to do gts right then and there, at 17 years old and speaking with the formula one program, like with bmw the head of bmw at the time, motorsport I had a conversation because I was still a junior driver, so it's under their wing and they would give you support on like what you would want to do in the future. And there's education involved there. They teach you engineering, media and so on.
Daniel:So I was like you know, what do you think about this opportunity? Should I do it? He's like if you do that, then your f1 hopes are over. So I was like, hmm, I want to do f1. I just imagine you just win this title and you think that the path is clear, like all you have to do is keep winning. So yeah, I think that in hindsight, just take when, when you have the opportunity to make a living in motorsport, you should kind of take that, unless there is a proper, clear path to getting to the top with a lot of financial backing behind you that's wild.
Daniel:As I have already mentioned, we did not have I, yeah, I never looked at it that way. That's crazy, yeah, and so many people made that mistake. You know so many guys that are not racing anymore. They were so talented but kept pushing through. They had the opportunity to to deviate and turn their success into a full-time career, but it's like you want a little bit more. A little bit more a little bit more.
Daniel:So you gotta know when to when to fold your hand and um and, you know, take the w somewhere else. But you know, luckily I got the second chance. Like I'm so thankful that I got that second chance, because I thought it was over. So yeah it's cool. It's cool to be able to do it now and um, it's been a hard, hard journey ups and downs roller coaster, but I think anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger there you go.
Jeff:There's the cliche for it. Well said, yeah, all right. So I kind of a follow-up to what you were talking about, your racing. So what is a day in the life you know of a championship winning gt3 racer? A you know a day? If you could walk us through a day at the track and then kind of a your average day back at home?
Daniel:so track is easy, it's like vacation mode compared to home. Um, I'll explain why. But yeah, the racetrack there's. It depends where I'm racing, right, because every series has a different level of of, let's say, responsibility in, and I'll walk you through the three of them. So US, for instance, it's pretty low key in terms of what I'm doing. Driving wise, I'll typically get six laps, eight laps before the race in the US, in the U?
Daniel:S and GT four, most of it's training my teammate, so my gentleman driver, bryce Ward this year. He, you know, he's a successful businessman turned race car driver. He wants to do racing on the side as a uh, a hobby and I have to do a lot of coaching with them. So most of the day is going through data, going through video, trying to find it's not complicated. I think you don't need to complicate coaching because you only process so much information.
Daniel:So I'll look at key bits of information. Try to really dumb it down in a way where it's super easy to digest, because when you're on the track you don't want to think very complex, you want very easy things. Really dumb it down in a way where it's super easy to digest, because when you're on the track. You don't want to think very complex, you want very easy things to digest and execute on. So we'll find a few points, boom, execute on the track. Next session we'll do the same thing rinse and repeat. So throughout the day I'm kind of looking through data. Maybe we're we're going over it a couple times as a refresher and we'll go back and forth. But uh, for me, on my side, I'm typically always maxed out after the first few laps. So, um, more or less race ready after three laps, I would say and the sin a lot with that.
Daniel:That's what's up that's pretty. Sometimes I actually get zero laps. So if we have an issue with the car daytona last year, I had zero laps before the race in the 24 hour you go full send, or or or you wait for the tires to to come. No, you gotta push if you don't push, then you don't get temperature in the tires and you just gotta drive on the limit whatever you feel the car, you feel the limit and you go.
Daniel:So in the us it's more or less how it is, and then I'll get in the car for the second half of the race. I don't qualify, my teammate qualifies. Then I'll get in the second half of the race and do my best and hopefully we can get on the podium. Carry it home, yeah, again.
Daniel:Asia, that's awesome situation Pro-am, uh, pro-am racing, and sort of a little bit more involvement on my side, because I would say my role is also quite important because I qualify and I start and finish one of the two races. So there's two races in Asia, uh, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. So my teammate will qualify for one, start one and then I'll finish it. Then the second race, I'll qualify, start and he'll finish. So we have to go through kind of run plans of preparing how to prep the tire. So we're really studying how the tire works and how to get it in the right operating window, working on setup, working on my teammates driving, because it's pro-am and typically the am drivers are a second to two seconds off. So we're trying to close that gap. And the most important element is the the AM driver. If, if your AM driver is quick, it's a huge advantage, right, they give you the car near the front and then you just get in the car in the front and you walk away. If you, your AM driver gives you the car in the mid pack and then all the other pro drivers are on track, now you have to fight with. Other pro drivers are on track. Now you have to fight with other pro guys. It's a lot more difficult than if you get the car up front. So we work on that.
Daniel:We're trying to get I'm trying to get my teammates up to up to speed in Europe. That's the top level. I mean we're not really working on each other Like we're. We're dissecting the smallest detail because it's three drivers, three factory drivers, in the car and we're trying to figure out how to extract hundreds Like there's there's literally thousands between us and we're looking at these little details. Oh, the brake release here. Oh, you got this extra bit of rotation. Oh, okay, use this curb. That we're really looking through everything. Data, video. We're trying to make our driving perfect, but also, with the car, trying to get the tires working in the right window. So I mean, man, it's from morning to evening.
Jason:That's a lot going on, man, it's nonstop.
Daniel:That's a lot going on. We eat breakfast at the track, lunch at the track, dinner at the track. It's not glamorous. Everyone thinks you're going on runway shows and fashion shows they think you're in all series asia is a little different.
Daniel:I would say asia is more luxurious. Um, you know, the am drivers there like to enjoy themselves a little bit more. So it's like, okay, we want to work, work, work. But at one point it's like okay, we're gonna stop and we're gonna go have a nice dinner, yeah, and um, yeah, you got to take advantage when you can right.
Daniel:So yeah, for sure. I mean. Well it's, I'm there as I'm a servant to to the team and to to the drivers. I represent mercedes. I'm, I work for the brand and, whatever it takes, I do so for me. It's I said it's vacation, but it's because I love doing it. You know, I love doing everything in life that I'm doing right now, but it is a little bit easier than at home. At home, when I get to spend my two days at home, I don't really rest. It's flat out on the company. So Moradnus is our lifestyle motorsport company.
Daniel:We started after winning the Rolex 24 in 2017 with hats. We did some hoodies and t-shirts and we, through the covid time and the lockdown and sim racing big boom, we pivoted to making more performance wear rather than just clothing, because our whole thing was we wanted clothing that you could, that looked like motorsport clothing, comfortable things you'd wear at the track, that wasn't limited to the racetrack. I didn't like when you had this like branding everything, like you couldn't wear that out. Yeah, loud branding. We wanted something that was subtle, kind of minimal, but really paid attention to details and good quality materials. So we created a motorsport lifestyle brand that you can wear at the track but also wear out to dinner or wear every day. And then we started doing sim racing gloves because through the lockdown I was doing a lot of sim racing. That's when I got into it and I used my race gloves and they kept ripping like my expensive nomex gloves, like man I'm gonna run out of gloves soon, so I was talking to my wife.
Daniel:Well, at the time we were dating. Now we're married and a kid on the way hey congratulations man congrats, that's awesome. Thank you, thank you yeah welcome to the club.
Daniel:So we, we I'm like, let's make. Let's make our own gloves and my my wife's an entrepreneur. Like she wanted to do this. She wants to have her own company. She tried with a few other fashion brand ideas, but it wasn't't really hit. But with this we had something. We made some prototypes. After like seven different prototypes, we found something that was good and I started using it and now we're doing performance jerseys, shorts, sim racing socks. The gloves are the number one sim racing glove in the world, by quite a margin actually, and, um, you know, you can just see the presence online with all the you know, streamers and youtubers.
Jason:It's really, really cool and also professional drivers I love the ones that look like, like, like a bone or something. Oh yeah, the skeleton.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, we actually have those are like one of our most popular uh designs, and so we wanted to create art on gloves and the goal was we wanted to make a glove that was durable, that lasted right, and, of course, it's just fabric right. We sometimes it's not perfect, but I have to say our, our fail rate is like less than one percent. It's like, oh wow, point two percent it's impressive man and you don't need them to be fire retarded or anything like that.
Daniel:It's not not yet we we wanted we actually inquired um. So we're in contact with the fia now we're, we're doing some testing.
Jason:You're trying to get it stamped with that FIA approval thing, Well we were.
Daniel:We're certified for carding, so international carding, our gloves are certified for carding. And, obviously, sim racing you can use them. People are using our gloves for track days, des time, attack, things like that Uh, autocross. But we wanted to make gloves that were so durable that you didn't get a new pair because they wore out. You got a new pair because you wanted the next design. So I like was successful in doing that because we're cranking out designs my wife's artistic side with dude you should make like a commercial.
Jason:That's a great slogan right there, you know, and that's really what it comes down to, that's why we made it.
Daniel:That's why we started the gloves and it's successful because they do last the test of time. Guys like um, you know I guess everyone listening will know streamers like uh samsoid. You know david samson. Samsoid's a a fairly large streamer. He uses our gloves. Two years he used a single pair of gloves and he's like they look brand new after two years. Every day streaming six hours a day oh yeah so that's like that's all the proof we need right there, so we'll definitely leave links in the description.
Daniel:Yeah, check out these gloves maybe we can uh spice it up with a a little special affiliate code for the podcast.
Jason:Yes, I would love that. I would love that. If you made it this far on the show, then you will know New collection.
Daniel:October 16th, so depending on when you're listening to this, it's already out. Perhaps Possibly Take that description. We'll see, let's go.
Erick:We have a new collection.
Daniel:Actually new Bones gloves. They were so popular.
Jason:We have different colors of the Bones gloves. I love this, bro. Thank you so much.
Jeff:Yeah, that's awesome, you guys heard him it's coming.
Daniel:And many, many more designs. Actually, a really cool design is it's the design and the livery of the Mamba. You know the man Filter car. It's a pretty I would say like pretty well-known. It's a fan favorite. It's the snake right, the Mamba. Man Filter snake that we race in the GT World Challenge Europe Series. So we're making a glove in collaboration with man.
Jason:Filter on this is gonna cost me a fortune, daniel I know honestly, those are my favorite gloves. After this is done, I'm gonna have to go to this website again yeah moradnuscom, moradnuscom, there you go. How?
Daniel:much is that.
Jason:I mean, this is turned into a shopping channel, right now I know when I'm home, like this is about to get expensive, and you know the holidays are coming up too, so I mean exactly but I'm just working non-stop with my wife on this stuff.
Daniel:You know we have a couple employees now. She's a big contributor, right you mentioned. I mean my wife does everything. I get the credit for most of it, which is funny because I would say I do 15 and she she does 85 of the work well, you do the driving, daniel.
Jeff:I mean, that's, I'm the marketing, that's it I'm the frontline guy you go and drive the car.
Jason:You just do that. That's awesome, man. That's your team, is what you're saying.
Daniel:That's awesome yeah, no, we were, we have. I mean, I'm so lucky to have have my wife in my life. That rhymed, that was good I know she's you.
Jason:She's been the best thing. You're on fire on the show.
Daniel:I love it yeah, no, I'm super lucky, honestly, like not to be cliche or anything, but like no, seriously, my wife is. We're the just the perfect match, the perfect balance of our character, how we operate day to day and what you know, what we enjoy in life. It's perfect and I don't mind the frontline stuff. I used to be shy, like I told you guys, but now, no problem, I, a million people, talk to a million people, I don't care, I'll talk to anybody, everybody for me is the same, we're all human, it doesn't matter.
Jason:I respect that life.
Jason:It doesn't so humbleness goes a long way, man, it goes a very long way. It'll get you places that you've never. Same thing with my own personal career. You know, being humble has gotten me places that I never thought that I would be in. So I I mean, I'm not a gt3 racer. I wish, but not in real life. Not in real life, maybe in the sim world, which brings us to our next question, and and this is an interesting one so when you said you got into sim racing, uh, briefly, during the covid right, because they shut the tracks down, you couldn't go racing. So what's the next best thing? Best thing, excuse me, is the virtual world. So how do you so your sim you get on there? For is it just fun? I know that the pandemic's over and you're back to driving, but you still have the sim racing thing going on. So what is it compared to like? Is it strictly a tool now, or is it strictly like entertainment?
Daniel:I think it's a little bit of both um, for for me it's fun first and foremost. Everything I do in my life has to be enjoyable. That's kind of like the rule I have amen, I only want to do things that are fun. So I figure out what, what I'm good at, what I want to do and how to make it fun. So if you can do that, you're not working.
Jason:I was going to say that man, I didn't want to steal your thunder.
Daniel:But if you're having fun.
Jason:You're not working. If you want to cut me, off.
Daniel:I want you to listen. I can't keep dropping these cliche quotes all the time. You gotta help. I know we're up to what. What is that we should? At least minimum you're prepping to be a dad.
Jason:So you gotta get your dad. I'm ready to go cliche out the kazoo dad jokes ready on tap. Yeah, gotta get you one of those dad hats that eric likes to wear on the show. It's in the other room, don't worry, I'm just waiting no so I, I like doing the sim racing.
Daniel:It's fun. I love the social aspect, connecting with people streaming. Also, it's great for marketing our product. Like what's better than being live streaming in front of a few hundred people? Or a few thousand people over a live stream will watch and, uh, you know, unique viewers will have. I usually I don't stream stream long, right. I I try to stream a little bit. You know two, three hours a couple times a week and we'll reach maybe 10 000 people per per stream. You know six to ten thousand. That's really really good.
Jason:It's a good good, those are big numbers, daniel because we're because of our niche right, sim racing is not fortnight or it's not any other. These video call of duty or something like that that they get, they're in the hundreds of thousands, but I wish the niche was a bit less niche, but I think all of us do.
Daniel:You know, sim racing is awesome. Racing is so cool. It's real racing. Yeah, maybe they're fake cars, but the racing is real, like the adrenaline's real. I actually get more nervous on the sim than I do in my real races if I'm doing interesting.
Daniel:Interesting because I'm not as confident on it like I know that other people put more time in. That's something, that's the commodity. I don't have more crazy young having less responsibilities. You have more time to do sim racing and the more time you put in, the faster you're going to be. I have, I mean, if I'm ever racing, I do zero practice, I just jump on and go, that's figure it out.
Jason:That's all of us. Because you got that block of time and you're like do I really want to spin laps or do I just want to go door to door? Let's go door to door right now. Door to door Sometimes root the ground. I just want to say, Daniel, I love your videos. By the way, Because when.
Jason:I was getting into this hobby, you were one of them and you would explain how braking, trail braking all your videos. My favorite video is one I think you made recently. I'm not too sure on the actual time frame, but when you compared iRacing on the top screen and on the bottom screen, you had a feed of your real life car that just blew my mind. It blew my mind because I was an ACC guy ACC. I'm recently now, we're not all perfect.
Daniel:It can be fun. Acc can be fun. There's definitely, if you're going to be critical and pick it apart, there's obviously some issues let's hear it, man, let's hear it don't filter, no, it's just the breaking, that's it, and I know the break. I've had this discussion with a few people and obviously there's. There's clans, right, people love. No, it's just the breaking, that's it. I know the breaking. I've had this discussion with a few people and obviously there's clans, right, people love their game. It's like anything in life, whether it's politics or anything.
Jason:Oh they'll defend it.
Daniel:People have their team right, their sports team, and they're cheering for them, no matter what Win or lose. I don't really have a bias towards anything or anyone. I just look for whatever I feel is most intuitive to me as a guy who does it Right. I'm very privileged, yeah, to be able to do this in real life, and I've driven so many different GT3 cars, so many different race cars. I know more or less what the car should be feeling like, whether it's a different car that I've not driven, you know. When it's in your hands, you know what it's supposed to feel like, yes. Or when it's on your feet, the pedals, no. No SIM is perfect. I can just say that straight up. No sim is perfect, but some get closer to reality than others. Acc is a fun game, but they're the way you drive it has.
Jason:It promotes really, really bad habits yeah, they want you to slam on the driver Because some real life GT3 drivers will be like yeah, actually I like ACC more than iRacing.
Daniel:I'm like I don't see it, but then they'll see it. But probably because they feel more comfortable, right, they're like oh, I'm better at this, this is the way I drive in real life. It's my style of driving.
Jason:It's a good perspective.
Erick:I'm not driving like that right, I'm not driving like that.
Daniel:Right, I don't. I'm not aggressive on the brakes in terms of just letting the ABS do the work for me.
Daniel:I'm used to my single seater experience no ABS really breaking on the threshold and breaking on the adhesion of the tire, the grip that it has to offer, rather than letting the controls do it for me. Acc drivers tend to smash the brake at a very high peak pressure and hold that sustained peak pressure for a long time. Iracing tends to have a more realistic braking curve, so you'll have the right timing on everything. So the way you ramp the pedal up. Actually, I made a video on youtube about the five stages of the brake zone yes, very very good video you're highly recommend guys check that out that's maybe I honestly think that's my best video I've made from like the most.
Daniel:I've been the most satisfied from that because of how I explain everything and how easy it is to understand what breaking actually is, because you hear these terms thrown all all over the place, like, oh you know, break point, or, uh, trail break, what's trail break? Nobody knows what trail braking is. Everybody thinks trail brake is cut and paste yeah, I have trail break is like it's, there's many stages to it. It's not one thing yeah, and there's different situations that you would use different techniques of a trail.
Jason:Sometimes you'll lift instead of trail braking or 100 lift earlier, you know, for a longer period.
Daniel:Yep, it just gets the right balance on the car. It's all about balance, weight balance. So, yeah, iracing, I find, has a better, uh, overall braking package, but tires tires are not as good, let's say, as some other sims, maybe like a few others. So there's pros and cons, there's trade-offs yeah, 100.
Daniel:There's trade-offs and I'm not going to sit here and say one game is perfect, because there's no such thing. Every single one has their pros and cons. Most people prefer playing iRacing because I think it has a few things going for. It has the biggest player base. Yes, that's multiplayer platform 100% diversity. You can race whatever you want and they're always available.
Jason:It doesn't matter what time any time of the day.
Daniel:You can race anything you want, and we're not sponsored by iRacing.
Erick:Not yet. We're welcome to it but we're not. Yeah, but Daniel, I have a testimony. I recently got my first podium in GT7. I know, it's like the red-headed stepchild, yay.
Jason:Nice.
Daniel:How is GT7?
Erick:They recently had a major update which upset a lot of people, and the people that were the happiest, ironically, were people that play iRacing, because one of the major changes they made were to the tire model and to the braking model and people that were kind of, like you were saying, used to slamming on brakes and not really paying attention to braking. There were memes of people just as soon as the race starts, first corner, everybody just spins because nobody knew how to brake. You had to relearn how to brake and I watched your video on brake zones, on contact patches and the importance of it and the things that impact it, and that was one of the things that made a big difference in my racing, even in GT7, just understanding the different dynamics If you're going up a hill, if you're going down the hill, compression of the suspension, just all the different things that impact your ability to brake when you load the tires. I mean it was interesting to hear you say that that was the video you were the most proud of, because it was one of the most meaningful ones.
Erick:I watched probably hundreds of videos since I started sim racing. Yeah, like that one was like directly, like immediately I understood. Oh, like that makes sense. Like I, when I'm driving, I see like the little patch in my head and I'm like when I car's dipping down I'm like, okay, it's a bit bigger, got a little bit more to work with it's. I can attest to the impact of that video For real.
Jason:That's awesome.
Erick:I've been watching you, eric.
Jason:man, lately You're improving big time. Yeah, I watched him the other day he was up at like four in the morning, Daniel, he was up at. I'm like, bro, don't you got to like work tomorrow?
Daniel:He's like bro.
Jason:I just watched a video. I got so much faster. No, it happens when we record these.
Erick:We record these videos and then it's like I just want to get in the car or the sim.
Jason:Right, we don't have the car, but I just want to get in the sim and I watched him and I was like are you driving this car? You, you're driving it way different. You know what I mean. And now I get to hear this. I mean that's awesome, you know look where it came from, baby.
Daniel:Oh, it's cool, it's so nice. I actually all the races. I actually noticed this a lot since starting on YouTube. It's been a year and a bit now on YouTube. I haven't really been active this year because I've been gone, like I said, 19 race weekends and all the testing in between. There's been like 35 days of testing on top of the 19 race weekend. So you imagine, you're going, you're leaving for Asia, you leave on like a Monday or Tuesday, so, like you're, you're gone for a week, seven days, eight days. Europe is the same, like it's, there's no time. So this year I didn't really upload a lot, but every track, no matter where I was Japan, malaysia, italy the amount of people that come up and say, oh I love your YouTube channel, it's incredible. They're like no joke, hundreds everywhere I go, like even Japanapan. They couldn't even speak english to me. They were like like yeah, youtube, youtube. Good, I'm like you're that.
Jeff:You're that famous youtube driver, aren't you? That's so cool.
Jason:I occasionally drive real cars too no, and the quality of your production is definitely there. I mean yes, yes definitely so.
Jeff:You know all the. I just want to jump in here. So all the you know you're talking of. You know how it's iRacing is accurate. You know ACC has got a little bit off. Is there anything that you worry about about creating bad habits in the sim that you can carry over into the real car? Is that a real thing? You know? Know from somebody that has real experience in both 100 like acc.
Daniel:Like I was telling you, I did spa 24. I never actually got in the car two years ago in 2022, but I they had a sim competition on the spa 24 weekend and nobody wanted to do it. None of the drivers were like new guy, new guy, he's gonna do it. So I'm like I'm wondering why, right little did you know? Yeah, well, I ended up doing this, this race on acc, and the way you need to drive is quite a bit different from, like, the tempo of braking compared to the real car. So, yeah, I mean I got in the real car again.
Daniel:And for, let's say, pouin, you know, at Spa it's a fast left-hander, it's like a double left In ACC you have to spike to 100%, like on-off, to trigger the ABS so it doesn't over-rotate. So you basically kill off the front axle by spiking ABS so it turns in with a lot of front. It's weird the way it works. I don't. That's on the last patch. So, whatever it is now, it's a little bit different, but still very similar. Maybe not as much, and all the the fanboys of ac like it's the greatest update ever.
Jason:It's like no, no, actually again. Yeah, it's a little bit better. For sure, 1.9 is the worst, actually it's. 1.7 was the best update in my opinion, but yeah go ahead.
Daniel:Yeah, so I can't remember which one it was, but I got back into the real car and the habit that the subconscious input was to spike the pedal and I nearly spun out oh, oh, yeah.
Jason:Yeah, it did affect you, man it did and it had.
Daniel:It took me a few laps to like, recalibrate myself in terms of like the finesse on the brake for a fast corner. It's an early light brake because you don't want to pitch the platform down, you don't want the front to be too active. So, very, very different. I racing the, the like I said, braking very good, the tires and the way you have to hustle the car in the corner is a little bit different. But I prefer that because it encourages a more precise, accurate driving style. So when you go to the real car and you dance it a bit more, you get away with it.
Daniel:So the braking is all similar, but the way you can hustle the car and get away with it, there's just more that you can take. You never want to be over aggressive or over prepped, you know, over overhyped for something you want to be able to build into it. If you're already way over the limit, it's so much harder to come back down. Actually it's harder to go from gt3 to gt4 than it is from gt4 to gt3 interesting to drive the car aggressive.
Daniel:It's easy. You just like okay, I need to push harder, just attack more brake. Later smash the brakes harder. Whatever it is in gt4 to be more finesse, it's a lot more difficult yeah, you know I have to throw this in there.
Jason:I purchased both cars on iRacing the, the amg cars, yeah, and I'm not a gt4 fan and I'm slowly becoming a fan of gt4 racing because it it's a little more, uh, close together, if you know what I mean. It's very aggressive when it comes to the actual racing, I actually enjoy it. I enjoy it a lot, man. Really it's awesome, I love.
Daniel:GT4 racing. Doing both of them now, gt4 racing is for sure the best platform of racing. No downforce, I mean you can lose the splitter, it does nothing, it's just weight off the car.
Jeff:The wings are pretend, they're not real.
Jason:Oh, it's just pretend. It's like oh, they're just there for show no, the racing's unbelievable.
Daniel:You can race nose to tail. There's no aero wash in iRacing. The aero wash is not nowhere near as bad in gt3 as it is in real life. In real life you'll see guys deviating lines to try to get air to the front, to the splitter and the dive planes. It's so sensitive, so like, for instance, monza was just racing in Monza In Parabolica. If you catch the dirty air of the car in front of you on the exit, you just drive straight off. It's like crazy. You on the exit, you just drive straight off. It's like crazy. You have grip, grip, grip and it's like no grip. It's like as if someone just lifts the car off the ground. It's wild the way, the way it drastically changes like that. So you really need to. You'll see a lot of guys in real life taking half the car underneath the car in front of them so they won't release it fully off the corner. They'll try to stay half a car underneath to get air to the front otherwise it has a lift effect.
Jason:So the front comes off and you, you.
Daniel:It's so bad that you have to lift off the throttle to get the weight back down, to get the splitter working again that's a lot going on, man that's cool there's a lot going on, so it's gt4, you can. You can literally be underneath the rear bumper of the car, in front, and it's like, yeah, you just possibly sideways slipping and sliding.
Daniel:It's awesome yeah, it's awesome, but driving gt3 is a better driving solo experience. Just having the downforce, being able to brake hard and late, is awesome. Gt4 you it requires more finesse and you, you know you watch the video so you know the ramp angle, the way you have to attack the brake is a lot slower, so you have to build that pressure slower in. But you can really break hard once you have the weight once you start it.
Daniel:Yeah, yes, because it's so heavy and all the weights off the front. You really need to give the front enough time to settle and then you can brake. But with GT3, it's super stiff, so there's not a lot of weight shift to the back. The car is being sucked down. Especially if you have a higher downforce.
Erick:It's wild.
Daniel:It's sucked down. You just bam, you can smash the brake in GT3 to you know.
Erick:To your heart's content.
Daniel:We're not working like kilograms, we work in bar. So pressure on the master cylinder, we're giving it like 120 bar of pressure. It's probably uh, you know, with the g assist, like if you take the g's away because that's something you don't think about in sim racing your staff, you don't have g force, so we get like two, two to three g's under braking. Imagine your foot's two to three times heavier.
Daniel:Wow, oh, so in the sim everyone's like, oh, but the real car. It's like 120 kilograms of force. It's like, no, it's not, because, yeah, it's actually a third of that but it's the g's that are that are changing compensating.
Jeff:That's crazy oh, we all got learned on yeah, we did even.
Daniel:That's why I set mine up at like 58 kilograms my, my simucube active pedal. I have 58 kilograms because that's kind of like the right feeling for me for what it's like to drive the real car.
Jason:So jeff can attest to this. Remember, Remember, Jeff. Remember I was telling you I started using 90 KG. I go by, I use the settings and I don't. I dial that way down to this. I'm in the sixties, I'm not quite in the fifties.
Daniel:And I find that 58, 60.
Jason:Yeah, I can. I can finesse the, the brake more.
Daniel:Yeah.
Jason:And ACC. I mean it don't matter, but iRacing, I definitely notice it because it's just smoother. You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah.
Erick:You have to be more consistent because you don't have to apply so much pressure You're using smaller muscles, right, your big muscle you use for that initial peak, but you're not straining yourself.
Daniel:So you have a lot more finesse and control on the pedal.
Erick:Yeah, that was one thing that helped me too, right Dialing finesse and control on the pedal. Yeah, that was one thing that helped me too, right dialing that down.
Daniel:Yeah, because the first misconception in sim racing everyone thinks you need stiff pedal, short travel. But if you watch any of my videos on youtube, sometimes I'll show the actual travel of my race car. I made some shorts as well on instagram. The pedal moves a lot. It goes long I have a long travel that to 70 millimeters, so it's seven centimeters of travel.
Erick:Man right, it's quite a long distance yeah, but you got a lot of control and and variable.
Jason:Think about it, it's if you have this range to to control all the pressure, as opposed to like that range, you have a very small window to get 100 of the pressure and it can't be consistent and I will say this for those people that run simicube, like myself I have daniel morehead's profile installed, at least on my wheelbase, and I use that religiously, uh, just because I like, uh, you know, I like the fact that it was made from someone that actually drives you know the cars and the fact that it was made from someone that actually drives you know the cars and stuff like that.
Daniel:It's personal preference as well right the wheelbase settings.
Daniel:It's not going to give you more grip on the track, it's literally just a feeling thing. Some people like it, some people don't. I have a lot of damping on my wheel. I love that it's dampened. I have motion, I have the D box, so I feel a lot of the road texture through my body. I don't need it through my hands, so I get um, I, I really like to feel the understeer. So, for instance, on semi cube, I'll dial in my uh static force reduction and what that does is it actually helps me feel when the front tire is slipping is slipping, it gets really light, right.
Jason:So it actually I can feel the understeer in the in the front tire yeah, yeah, and I have my inertia dialed in so when, when the rear snaps, I can really catch it quickly so when I plan on getting these pedals and when I do the pedals are, are they worth it?
Daniel:because I'm running, uh, I'm running 100 worth it really, no, I'm just I hate to say that because then people have to spend more money but like, while it's screaming right now no, they should set a goal to eventually have that piece in their sim racing setup, because it it actually does make a difference, even for amateur drivers.
Daniel:It really helps. You have a lot more control. It's with all the other stuff removed from it, so like abs and vibration and this, and that it is the most precise pedal I've ever used. It's very, very accurate and it doesn't wear out because there's no elastomers. Yes, this is true, it just lasts forever.
Jason:It should in theory last yeah, and if you're like me, I play multiple Sims you can have settings dialed in for each.
Erick:Sim so easy.
Jason:Yeah, you don't have to turn a wrench bro like at all, everything's electronic.
Daniel:That is the most underrated thing. Not only is it just the precision, but the ease of use. Clicking a profile you want to use a prototype driver's profile, which there's prototype profiles loaded. Tony Kanaan, you want to use his IndyCar profile? Boom, one button.
Jason:I know, and it's a good starting point. I know you said it's personal preference but, it's a good place to start right, and you can always make a copy of the profile and then manipulate it to your liking. But I mean, that's what I've done with Dan Suzuki's profiles too. I run his profiles as well. Those are pretty good, yeah and yeah, well just one, one more question on the on the sim racing. Uh, while we're out of here, while I'm on topic, you do you drive exclusively the amg and I racing like both?
Daniel:no, so I think maybe you get tired of the same. I'll explain. Like the gt4 yes, for me, best gt4 car just drives, correctly drives. It's the nicest. It's the nicest gt4 car. I think any amateur driver that's looking to do gt4, that's the best one you can you can drive. It's the most balanced, it's most intuitive, it just does everything you expect it to do and it's I. I feel like it comes easy, right controlling the car and getting the speed out of it. Gt3, on the other hand, was good when we initially launched it.
Daniel:I was on the the alpha team for for that car, so we designed the gt oh, wow so oh wow, that's awesome, yeah, so it was at a time where the tire was a little too quick because of the way the aero load on the tire was affecting the grip. So you would end up getting like way more aerodynamic grip than you should be getting. So, for instance, turn one at road atlanta you do in fifth gear, but in real life you're doing it in third so it's like you know third, fourth, like that is a big difference man yeah, like daytona bus stop.
Daniel:You do it like top of fourth gear, but really it's a third gear corner. The bus stop at daytona so you get way more aero grip. But the balance of the car was fantastic. It was the way it should be. Driving had a little bit of understeer, very stable. The rear was super locked down and secure, even on throttle, and never spun up the rear tires and snapped the rear. Now it kind of feels disconnected. So if you drive the car, some tracks it feels okay and some other tracks it's like man, do I even have? Do I have like mcdonald's shopping trays on the rear tires?
Daniel:it feels disconnected, um, as if I have rain tires on the rear. So I don't know what's going on there and I think, through the evolution of the tire and the bop changes and the aero changes that happened on the car, something went a bit wacky there. So it's it's difficult for me to to drive it right now. Um, and it stinks because I love the car. It's my favorite gt3 in real life that I've ever driven.
Daniel:I've driven the lexus, the audi, the porsche and mercedes, and mercedes is that every driver will tell you that's driven that car. It's the nicest to drive, is it? Is it the fastest? Sometimes, yes, sometimes no very nice for a gentleman driver to get up to speed and be close on lap time, like anything. Very difficult to extract the maximum potential out of it because it requires a certain driving style to get the most out of it. Very smooth. Whenever you watch an amg onboard, you'll never see the wheel being worked like this. It's always one precise input to load the front tire because it's such a big, heavy car, long car, long nose, long nose, yeah, and so much weight over the front. It's very soft as well, very soft platform. So when you turn in, you cannot turn in multiple times, because then you get this weight shifting and moving and wobbling. So when you see an AMG driver fast, it looks like they're just doing a, a reconnaissance lab, going in one time turn in and it goes like you're driving a main bag or something.
Jason:That's crazy. That's what it is.
Daniel:I love that. For me, precision driving is my style. I'm very, very precise in the brake, the way I build the brake pressure, in the way I put the weight on the front tire, when I turn in the timing of choosing the right turn in point, and boom, hit it. That's it. Porsche drivers different. You'll see Porsche drivers really like nervous, nervous, nervous. Yes, the Porsche's trying to kill you, right? So Porsche drivers, with all the weight moving in the back there's a lot of correction. They're doing like eight times more work than we are.
Daniel:You know we break and that's what I loved about it on iRacing was that it was so stable and you could turn it one time. Now it's like what is traction for 400?
Jason:you know that's insane it's difficult.
Daniel:I it really drives you know, after this show I'm gonna jump in the car again and see I'm gonna be so like if I'm gonna give a breakdown of all the cars, I would say right now the mclaren feels very good it's the newest car.
Erick:Yes, that drives correct. It has a little bit of understeer off the corner like has a little bit of understeer off the corner, like it should most cars have understeer.
Jason:Thank you so much look, that's our favorite car, this guy man jeff and I jeff um you. Come on, jeff dude.
Jeff:I was dude jason sent this week. I think I've got 20 uh livery design updates from jason for the mclaren on iris yeah, I come out, I come out of work I got new pictures to look at.
Daniel:Oh yeah, and I just hit him off. Good, yeah, porsche feels good for the most part. Uh, ferrari is decent, but yeah, so it feels true, guys, we.
Jason:We heard it from the man mercedes.
Daniel:Sometimes it's weird, though. Some tracks I'm like, oh, feels good. And then I go to some other tracks I'm like what is this? Do I even have rear tires on the car? Did I pick the wrong?
Jeff:car.
Daniel:Yeah, I actually had to go back to the menu sometimes to see if the rain tires are on.
Jason:I've done that before too, man, and it sucks.
Daniel:As an AMG driver, I want and I'm hoping that we can get it, you know, ironed out. Um, I think there's a. There's things happening there. There are things in the works. I know that they're working on a new tire update which, yes, just like the rain, everyone's like where's the rain? Where's the rain? Where's the rain? Rain comes out best thing ever. Like it's happening a bit too frequently when you say best.
Jason:Thing it's not carried away like it's the best thing ever when when I'm by myself.
Daniel:But when I look, when I'm watching somebody else do it I can't think ever it's, it's okay you, you see how difficult that is yeah, super difficult man imagine doing the same thing, but with like real life consequences, like it's literally one-to-one, like it's so accurate it's crazy. Um, it really is. They did an amazing job on on the the rain, the tempest model like the puddles. Maybe the rain can be too extreme sometimes and they race in it. Normally it would be red flag, like when you're hydroplaning down the straight don't race in that it's so dangerous it's crazy what the wheel does, though.
Jason:When you go over the puddles like that, it's like you don't feel nothing and the car is not turning, it's not stopping, it's not doing anything.
Daniel:And then you just suddenly get the grip back and you're like oh, my god, wrong angles it's exactly like like that in real life, so they did a really good job on it. So I'm sure you know good things take time so there you go. I mean, it's a good yeah, the tires are being worked on. They know that it's a weak point and I think that, uh, whatever's coming will probably be pretty good.
Jason:They have they have enough resources and that's why I'm sure they do especially trust me with jeff and I. We're definitely fun. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, aren't we all? I know we're definitely throwing cash.
Daniel:I think that you know we touched on the fact that you can race anytime, anything you want, around the world, any time zone. It's worth every penny, yeah, but you know that that comes at a cost. Yeah Right, the the servers are expensive. People think that iRacing is just raking it in. I'm sure iRacing is doing very well, but we pay for a premium service. That's why there's a membership fee. That's why there's a fee for every every car and track. There's a lot of work. That know how much work goes into it, because I was part of one of the builds and it's it's impressive. You know they really go to great lengths to make sure things are accurate and they'll correct things. Recently at spa they just launched the new spa and there were a few things that were not accurate with the track. So I sent over some of my onboards and I took I had some pictures from from the track. Wow them and they. They just went in and straight away fixed it yeah, we just had a patch.
Daniel:Yeah, so turn one exit curb was incorrect. They actually had no curb, there was just um a little strip of tarmac. So they put the red sausage curb in turn eight was incorrect because there were actually patches of little green um curbs, like on the inside of the red and white rumble strip in turn eight. Brussels, turn 12 and 13 was incorrect because they never had the brick curb behind the curb itself.
Jason:This is a lot of corrections. Dan, it's a lot.
Daniel:I got the screenshots of onboard video I had and sent it to the art team and they're like, that's not quite. The patch came in five days later I was. Like it to the art team and they're like, that's not quite. The patch came in like five days later I was like oh, that's quick.
Jason:Yeah, Somebody got yelled at, I'm pretty sure.
Daniel:Nah, it can be easily missed, even with the cars some of the cars, you'll notice there's corrections with the way the window nets are and things like that. What was great, they came back to me after the art was correct and that the car was accurate in terms of everything visual sitting in the cockpit and yeah, it's cool that they went to those lengths to make sure that everything was right.
Erick:Okay, that's awesome, so keep it on sim racing.
Jason:Thank you so much. Wait a minute. First and foremost, thank you so much on behalf of the iRacing community for making our track experience as close to real life as possible and for teaching us how to break man. Thank you so much. Daniel. Breaking is most important.
Erick:Yeah, yes, the biggest difference.
Jason:Yeah, I'm like you guys see me still here, but I'm shaking in the chair. Man, this is awesome, but go ahead, eric, go ahead and continue. Let's get that next question on.
Erick:Yeah, man, so this is just talking about the SimRacing kit. In your opinion, what is the most important piece of your setup when it comes to driving fast? Because I think a lot of people get caught up in immersion and I think there's a fine line between something that's immersive and something that actually makes you faster. So, your opinion, if I'm building a rig like what's like, bare minimum if I want to be fast.
Daniel:Fast, I mean. I actually I made a video on the upgrade path because people get it wrong. Everyone thinks you need pedals first or triple screens or something. No, you need a rig. You build a house on a strong foundation. You don't build it in quicksand.
Daniel:A rig is the most important, Whether you have G29 pedals and wheel, if you're on the floor, you just take that whole setup, put it onto a proper racing position, a rig that's sturdy enough that it's not going to flex or move Immediately. You're going to find more precision because now you're not trying to make sure that you're not moving the pedal. You can actually push the pedal with the input that you're looking for Right Without having to compensate yes, first piece of gear that you should be upgrading is your foundation and everything else you add as you go.
Daniel:So if you're serious about sim racing, get rid of your office chair or your foley chair. If that's all you have and that's all you can fit, that's what you have to work with. But the moment you have the opportunity to get a proper rig like an 8020 rig, I'm with asr. I stand by these guys, my rigs, asr best company. Not just the material, because I verified with multiple manufacturers. Not only is it the best metal, but it's the thickest, most sturdy rig that doesn't creak and crack and the metal is like twice as thick as anything I've seen, comparing it to um, to the other brands and and you're in talks with them right asr, like you do.
Jason:You do, you know?
Daniel:them like oh yeah, I'm a partner, like I actually signed a deal with them to represent asr as an ambassador oh awesome. No, I mean, I chose this because I had multiple. Uh, you know, I'm in a privileged position because I do this in real life, I race, and these companies want real life drivers to give feedback. And I'm in a unique spot. Right, I sim race, I'm passionate about it and I also do real racing, so obviously there's not many guys that do this, right?
Daniel:Yeah, and it's very valuable. So can you please, when I want to work with someone.
Jason:It's not about money. Right, tell them to ship to hawaii, because they don't ship over here and I just had to get that out jeff, can you we're? We're hurting over here. We got sim races in hawaii too, man yeah, we'll pay for the shipping.
Daniel:I'm sure they can. I'm sure sure ASR can make it happen. They're free to the state.
Jason:I wanted to work with them.
Daniel:We got lower 48 problems.
Jason:We do, oh man.
Daniel:They're just good people. That's the moral of the story Good people, trustworthy, great customer service. What more can you ask for? When you put your name on something you want to make sure that it's having the same values you have.
Jeff:Yeah, I think we're learning now that people want it.
Daniel:Obviously, there's going to be people that are unreasonable in life, but thankfully there aren't many of them. Right, and everyone deals with it. Asr deals with it, we deal with it, asr deals with it, we deal with it. But you know, for the most part they're so accommodating to everyone, um, and I love that. They, they are on top of it, they, they understand sim race and they, they, they're honest, they're not price gougers. They literally are offering such a good product for the value yeah, yeah, I can attest.
Erick:I bought my first that same path. I had the G29. I had the office chair. I was bolting it to a little wooden rig I made. And when I finally decided to purchase an actual rig, looking at everybody and the prices it's like, oh, this is a good price, but it costs how much to ship Two, fifty, three hundred. That's a whole nother rig. And I just came across ASR one day and I'm like I didn't really hear much about them. You hear a lot about the track racers and stuff like that. Started watching videos, testimonies and you look at the pricing, I'm like this is a great price, especially for entry level rig. Free shipping, quick shipping.
Erick:Got the box here yeah, I'm like this is like a diamond in the rough, because I was looking for weeks and just one, just one day I was deep enough in the youtube rabbit hole like this guy had a video from like six years ago talking about an asr rig and I'm like I hadn't heard of them. As soon as I put it in, some other stuff came up and then I started hearing testimonies about people like you. Like there was someone else we interviewed who had an ASR rig and I'm like, so there SimRacing.
Jason:Then Mike yeah, good man, mike's awesome. Yeah, mike, shout out to Mike.
Daniel:He's really killing it on YouTube. Yes, he is, oh yeah definitely. He got that. Mercedes wheel video it was hot, I watched it yeah yeah man I I always see I mean I'm locked into his. Whatever the algorithm is, I'm tied into that one because boom right on the news feed.
Erick:It's good yeah but I can, like I said I can, I can attest to asr. I have the, the asr1 which is their base model rig. I'm not a small guy. I have a seat of a honda civic that I got off a facebook marketplace that I bolted to it and sim magic alpha 15 newton meter wheel pedals and it's rock solid even at the entry level.
Daniel:Yeah, that's awesome you know it's not so you have, it's what you do with it there you go, there you go.
Jason:That's number five. We're up to five now.
Daniel:I thought it was like six, now that was seven. Well, you only get 10 podcasts.
Erick:We're limited on those we need to.
Jeff:You know, we need to be careful do you ever talk to your fellow competitors? What percentage of people out there of your fellow racers are using Sims to get faster, better, more consistent, whatever it may be, not just as oh, it's fun to do when I'm not racing for real.
Daniel:I don't know how many actually are using it as like a proper training tool, because I'll use it with my teammates to prepare for races, maybe not the on the pro level stuff. So in europe we're not really training together. But um, in the us for gt4 I drive with bryce ward quite a bit like we do, probably 12 hours of sim racing with the more idness m squad, which is our sim racing team, the m squad we have like 30 guys in there 30 30 drivers.
Daniel:Some are more serious than others, but the goal is for um, you know, to develop these, these drivers. We've taken guys from 2k to eight and a half thousand I rating and racing top split podium, eight and a half thousand. Yeah, we just recently podiumed with two of our drivers they're both 2k, like a year and a half ago now they're in the 8 000 range and they podiumed in lmp2 and top split in.
Daniel:Uh, indie, indie, six hour wow, so nate olsen and alec bergstrom, so two guys that uh joined the team to develop and um, just incredible to see how they progress. And you know they're they're faster than I am now.
Jason:It's crazy is that still open for for others to join? So?
Daniel:it started. The moranis m squad started as a open. Anybody could do it, like to, could join in it was supposed to be for, like casual races, with our tighter, more intimate community Exploded and you know, at the time it was like a gem, right. We didn't know what it was supposed to become, but with the members, it was all of us together brainstorming like what could we do? It's like, oh, let's do some special events together. Oh, let's do this. Then it started to turn into more of an academy, like, oh well, actually, let's turn this into some coaching and we'll do group coaching with some of our coaches.
Daniel:So Giuliano Romagnolo is one of my very good friends in real life and he's a coach and helps organize the team with myself. And we have another driver driver, dion Fiaio, who's um. He drives with BS competition, but he he's like the core of our group in terms of um helping with setups. Uh, nothing that really conflicts with what he's doing, but he'll help with setups on our LMP three cars, lmp two and um. He also just helps the guys on a more technical level, which is cool, teaching them how to set up their own cars and how to make adjustments. And I'll do a lot of the driver coaching, so really technical stuff and helping the guys understand how to race, how to drive, how to brake properly. Obviously, you get a snippet of the free coaching. We go on a much more in-depth level and I really dissect people's telemetry in our team and juliano, we call him stew. Um long story with his name, but um yeah he's like he's really active with the guys yeah, how do you get an italian guy, juliano romagnolo?
Daniel:how do you get him to like stew? How does that happen? Yeah, that's a story, not for today um yeah, so it's just an amazing group and this is iRacing, only right iRacing it's invite, only iRacing predominantly.
Daniel:Some guys play ACC for fun, but we're really gearing everything towards iRacing and it's for and it's invite. Only now People are. I mean, you got to see the amount of requests we get. It's flattering, it's really nice and we appreciate that. But we pick and choose the personalities that will fit correctly in our team. We don't just open it to anybody because it's a selfless group. Everybody is helping each other. If somebody comes in, it's's like what can you do?
Daniel:for me, me, me, me do for me. We don't do that. We help each other. People are in need. We, we get together and we help. You know whoever it is, somebody goes through a hurricane, gets their stuff flooded, we fund a rig for that person, like this is a kind of it's a brotherhood.
Daniel:You know it's amazing. We we go to the races together. A bunch of them are coming to atlanta for the last imsa race. A lot of the guys flew out to most sport for the the imsa race there and you know we'll do group dinners together. It's like a family. You know, it's really, really cool. It's become way more than just guys coming in for development. We're hanging out every night. I was on discord with the guys before I came on the show. We played fantasy football together.
Jason:That's awesome.
Daniel:We've become very good friends. All of us are great friends, even in real life.
Erick:When is the Atlanta Emser race?
Daniel:October 10, 11, 12, 13 weekend.
Erick:That's during my kids' fall break. We got a vacation plan. I'm like four hours from Atlanta. I was just there, been there a couple times Best racetrack.
Daniel:Atlanta's the best. We do a barbecue on Friday night, m Squad Barbecue, so actually my teammate well, team owner. Bryce Warren he brings in steaks from Texas.
Jason:I mean, you guys can come over to Hawaii, you know and check out the Chicane podcast over here.
Jeff:you know We'll smoke something up in the smoker.
Daniel:Well, they all got to drive my race car, the GT4 car.
Jason:That's fine. 16 of them.
Daniel:So Bryce last year.
Jason:I'm so jealous right now, man. As a kid as you go on. I'm like damn.
Erick:We're running in barbecue driving race cars. Steaks from Texas.
Daniel:The people that took the blind chance to join the team are reaping the benefits now, because I mean, some guys got full rig builds like chassis, pedals, steering, everything. You know we'll just do fun things like that. I've helped a few guys out, surprise them with full builds and, um, you know it's for me it's. It's not about what I'm getting from these guys. I don't care. I I love hanging out. It's like a social group and I really want to see the people that are putting in a lot of work. I want to see them do well.
Daniel:So if I see someone really helping others and being really selfless, but also putting in a lot of work towards their own driving and developing. You want to. You want to help that person. You want to see them do do the best they can.
Erick:So that's, amazing.
Daniel:Some people are less fortunate than others. You know, not everyone's a doctor or a lawyer or a race car driver or an astronaut or whatever. Some people are, are doing different jobs and that's the stage that they're at in their life and they're doing something they love. They love sim racing. And you want to help these people out, especially if they're helping others and they're being selfless. Just you want to see those kind of people do well.
Jason:Wow, that's great to hear man.
Daniel:And it's invite only because, like I said, hear these stories like, fuck, I want to get a free rig from this guy, I want to drive his gt4, you know? I mean people say like, oh, I want I could go faster than these guys like, and that's exactly why you're never going to join the team. Yeah, because nobody talks like that. We never compete against each other like I'm better than you. Yeah, we'll ban, we'll have banter and we'll we tease each other in a friendly, like loving way, but when it comes down to it, every single person will.
Erick:You know lay down for the other in front of the truck.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, you got your back, yeah, it's really cool. And when yeah, yeah, you got your back. Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. And when, when they're not like that, we kick them out, it's sorry, like it's just the way it is. We're not going to have a cancer in in right team environment yes, you want to control this is how it is in life, in race teams. If you have someone who's really disrupting the environment, all it takes is one broken link for the entire circuit to not work.
Erick:Yeah.
Daniel:That's it.
Erick:That's for any team. You got that dynamic that culture established One person comes in and ruins it for everybody.
Daniel:So yeah, you got to have that good culture and that's what we really prioritize.
Jason:I've never heard of a group like this. This is honestly the first time I'm. I've never.
Erick:This is insane.
Daniel:It's rare, it's rare 30 and it's special I take it for granted because I'm like, oh, whatever, it's cool, it's fun, but the guys really even for, like, their mental health. People go through slumps, people go through bad, you know, life experiences, whatever it may be, the first people they come to is the team, the m squad. So it's so cool. You know, obviously we don't want anyone to go through bad times, but you have a group of people that you can lean on and that can really pull you out of a hole. So I know some of the guys have said if I never had the m squad, I don't know what would where, I'd be, like I'd be in a bad place.
Daniel:So when I hear those kind of stories. It actually is so nice for me to hear, to see what my wife and I have started, and with the help of all our friends and everyone that's been along the way with us for the journey. It's been really, really cool, super honored.
Erick:Yeah, I think everybody should try that.
Daniel:Lucky to have even for myself. When I'm traveling on a road trip. I drive toianapolis for eight hours.
Jason:I'm on discord the whole time talking to the book, so it's cool, even for me. That's awesome man.
Daniel:I love to hear this man yeah, so it's awesome they got to drive the gt4 because they were a lot of them were actually pretty good, like shockingly good six.
Jason:Yeah, like you're like.
Daniel:Hey, you're pretty good yeah, I mean you can look at the youtube video to see how they actually did, because I did a uh, an experience as a whole, like for how they, you know, they drove and then whatever and the whole trip, and then we also did a little breakdown of their onboard videos and some of the guys were close that's cool, yeah, that's yeah, we don't, man.
Jason:that's crazy. This is the first time I'm hearing this in depth detail about the group. That's amazing, it's amazing. So for the next question, moving on, where do you see yourself as a driver from two to four years from now?
Daniel:Where do you see yourself headed? Is the question? Hopefully to a watch store to get a bigger safe. That's the goal. Okay, all right.
Erick:Answer the collection.
Jason:That's a good answer. I like it. I can respect that.
Daniel:I mean, I love what I'm doing. It's so much fun, I'm enjoying myself, I'm kind of taking it race by race, day by day. But yeah, racing and good programs, winning races, big races, races, having a bigger presence in sim racing, expanding our uh, our glove sales into potentially carding, which is something we haven't been able to do. We just don't have the bandwidth. So we're trying to get our, our gloves into, you know, more carding tracks on, more carding drivers hands, and just keep pushing the company because, at the end of the day, like the company is an amazing future after racing, we leveraged racing to create such an amazing business that's gonna go on for years and years okay so yeah, as a driver, winning whatever I can in whatever program I can race in, as long as I'm fast and I feel like I'm competitive, I'll keep racing.
Daniel:I hate losing and I don't want to be slow. So if I feel like I can't do it anymore at the highest level then I'm not interested. You know, like I said, love racing but I love winning at whatever I'm doing in life. More, and the process in terms of how you get to that level of success, I really like that. I guess the work ethic that's required and the process of getting to victory lane, that's fun for me.
Erick:Yeah, that feedback loop of seeing the work pay off.
Jeff:All right, daniel, I kind of got. My last question for you is uh, what's your favorite motorsport memory? So we have a video here, um, and I wanted to show you this because this is me when I get a podium and I racing. So, um is a. A, what's your first, what's your favorite motorsport memory? And b is this you also in the rig when you're winning iRacing or with the boys, so we'll play this out for the crowd here. Um, but this is me in the rig here when I win, so we're podium. So probably a pretty emotional event for you here. So, uh, yeah, this is me in like a thursday night at 11 o'clock as I'm getting ready to go to bed after beating a bunch of people I don't know, and iRacing, yeah. So what's your favorite motorsport memory?
Daniel:This. How could it not be?
Jeff:Do you want to tell the crowd what this is if they can't read the bottom there?
Daniel:can you want to tell the crowd what this is, that if they can't read the the bottom there. So the rolex 24 win this year. I, you know, got the chance to bring the car for the you know final stint and bring the car across the line. It wasn't just a walk in the park, it was a super, super intense battle with uh, with the ferrari, for the last like 38 minutes of the race on a restart and yeah, like in the end, what made it even sweeter is the fact that they were caught not playing within the uh, the scope of the rules in terms of bop and they found some extra performance which they got fined and docked all their manufacture points after um. So that made it even sweeter to know that we did it fair and square against someone that was playing outside of the rules.
Daniel:And it was the best drive of my life by far, like it was zero mistakes, just quali lap beyond quali laps. It's like you know, when you hear not to compare with like senna or things like that, but you hear these stories of people driving outside of their body, outside of the car, it really felt like I wasn't driving. It felt like I wasn't even in control, I was just gliding around and it just was glued Like the car was glued, not one mistake, not one misput wheel anywhere, and it was the most clinical drive of my entire life. Uh, for that 38 minute period from the green flag.
Daniel:On that last restart to the checkered flag, it was insane. The intensity level was something like you can't even imagine. So yeah, just in the moment awesome. The other thing that can maybe compare with that not quite at the same level, but the world championship that I won in carding go-karting. That was also pretty intense because started way back in the field.
Daniel:In the pre-final we were dead last and the final started 13th and ended up winning the world championship of karting on the final lap, final corner of the race so that was also a pretty wild finish and I ended in the fence because the tie rod broke wasn't my fault thankfully, I thought it was but the the thread on the tracking rod broke and, like both wheels opened up. I have a video or a picture of both tires pointing outward and I ended up bending it hard, but I still won the race. So it was all good. But no Daytona this year by far Like the greatest moment of my life and you could see that emotion not an emotional guy in the car at all.
Daniel:When I'm, when I'm racing, I'm just dialed in. I'm an information, I'm a numbers guy. Give me information, I execute on information, doesn't matter what other people are doing, doesn't matter if I make a mistake. I have no emotions, I'm a zombie. But when you're dialed in so tight for that amount of time and it's a 24-hour race, the whole thing went perfectly to plan and then you have the most intense finish set up with a car that's quicker than you, that's the emotion you see there. It's just a release, as if you're in a war zone and you've just come out victorious. You know it's the most intense moment and of your life and that's that's the reaction you have, so I couldn't control it.
Daniel:I just kept screaming. I didn't even know I was on camera it's awesome
Jeff:I mean yeah, that's beautiful like you could just see the emotion pouring out of you in the seat. Absolutely, that's the right word. It's just genuine, like you know that you're not doing it for the money, the fame, whatever you know YouTube views, whatever. It's just pure, unadulterated emotion of hard work and you know, little blood, sweat and tears and culmination of all that stuff. So, man, like good on you, you can just see it. It's awesome, you're happy, work hard, it was cool. It's a cool video. It brought a smile to my face.
Daniel:I would say it's all the you know, all the hard years of not making it and just always having to prove yourself. It's like now. I don't care to prove myself, I don't need to prove myself, having to prove yourself. It's like now I don't care to prove myself. I don't need to prove myself. I already know. I know what I can do. I know my worth. I've known it for a long time. But that was like the seal of approval yes, for myself not for anybody else.
Daniel:The final I could get that done, the biggest race on the biggest stage in the most pressure cooker moment.
Jason:And wow.
Daniel:Yeah, the thing to prove it right. That was purely for nobody else other than me and that's what I wanted to achieve. I wanted that moment. I we won Daytona before did it my first ever time doing Daytona. It was an amazing effort as a team, as was this one. This was a fantastic team effort.
Daniel:But being on both sides of it winning the race, you know, doing my part in the race and being in the pit lane seeing my teammate bringing the car across line it was incredible. We were all crying then, like tears were coming down our face, but it was a different level of emotion. You know you can, you can accept it for a long period of time. You know you could, you could accept it for a long period of time. You know you could see it was developing, was happening, but when you're driving, it's not happened until you cross the line, like you're so engaged in it and that it was such a different experience. So really lucky, not only to win it one time but to do it twice in two different capacities one being in the you know, doing my part in the race and and handing the car over to the finishing driver, and then also to be the finishing driver to have all the whole race that was set up for that moment for you to bring it home.
Erick:That was cool has anybody man, that's. How often does that happen? I'm just curious like somebody wins essentially.
Daniel:Oh, I mean, people do it for 20 years and they don't win. That's wow like speaking to some veteran drivers. They're like man, you don't understand, you've won it twice. Now, some people have been doing this for a long time. They don't even win it once and I was lucky. I won the very first attempt, 2017. We won the race so I was like boom, that was awesome, so cool. But I always wanted to win it as the last guy too.
Erick:Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to cross that line.
Daniel:It's a lottery right?
Jason:The 24 hour is a lottery for the entire race, until the very end. Then it's anything can happen, man, and that's the thing. Anything can happen, that's crazy man.
Daniel:Those are the best drivers in the world. Right the very end of the race, it's everyone's putting their their, their hot shoe in and it's um, it's like the last sprint 15 cars on the lead lap at the very end. That was incredible. 15 cars on the lead lap after 24 hours. That's when you start with 38 minutes left and it's like it's all up for grabs that's wild.
Jeff:Could have saved everybody like 23 hours and 20 minutes just started with a one lap hot lap or you know 30 minutes to go. You know that's crazy.
Daniel:Well, thanks for sharing that you know emotional, you'd be too fresh that's true, that is absolutely emotionally, mentally, physically destroyed checks out, checks out.
Jason:It sounds about right.
Daniel:I think you know it makes sense and then you can't control your emotions at one point, because you don't even know what planet you're on.
Jason:Nah, but you earned that man, you earned that. You earned that. You were really modest about it. I believe you know what I mean Because, like you said, you're informational, you don't really talk on the radio, but it was that one moment. You know, know, and that's your moment.
Daniel:That is a key moment in probably for your entire life, I think, 100 I'm taking that forever and the watch is such a cool trophy because it's a reminder of, like, the achievement that you you have and all the hard work along the way. Like that's the coolest thing ever. People offered to buy this watch off me for over a hundred thousand and there's no chance I'm going to sell it no, because no like I told you guys money is not the most important thing to me.
Daniel:My family is the most important first of all, and personal accomplishments really important. You know these, these pieces are are pieces you keep with you forever. They mean way more than money can ever offer money's. Empty money, okay, can get you the opportunity to have more fun in certain situations. They're like fun coupons right but, but like fun coupons.
Erick:That's a part of your soul, right?
Daniel:yeah, it's not just material, it's like literally a part of your soul now. It's a part of your journey, your, your whole life's journey. So never gonna sell these pieces and, yeah, hopefully I can pass them down to my, my kids kid for, for, for starters, maybe kids.
Erick:Awesome, and there you go, both friends yeah.
Jason:Yes, congratulations. And soon to be dad, you know, at the time of this, recording another big achievement in your life. So that's two big wins. Man, I think you're doing pretty good. It all happened right at Daytona.
Daniel:We found out that we were pregnant right after the race.
Jeff:Daytona's a cool middle name.
Jason:Daytona is a cool middle name.
Daniel:That watch is reserved.
Jason:It's got a name on it already. So for the final question here, daniel. So where do you see sim racing headed? You know, two, three, four years from now.
Daniel:that's my final question for you I hope that more real life drivers can get involved in sim racing and bring some attention to it, because all the drivers in sim racing are so talented and they don't get enough spotlight. So I think sim racing drivers should be focused on more and should get more opportunity. If they want to continue sim racing they should have the eyeballs if they want to transition into real racing. There should be that opportunity for some of these drivers. I've seen it firsthand with with our group. These guys can drive.
Daniel:You know, if you can drive on the sim, you can more or less be reasonable in real life. Now, would you be elite level? That's hard to say, but at least they're competent. They can turn the wheel left and right and push the pedals and be reasonably within the lap time. So I would love for more people to get into it. Guys from other disciplines you can see, like crim six, ian porter. He's a call of duty wizard and he's transitioning to racing you know coming over guys like that in maybe other disciplines and in first person shooters that are transitioning over, maybe bringing more eyeballs.
Daniel:that would be awesome in terms of realism. I'd love for these companies sim racing companies to utilize the real drivers even more than they are right now to bring in that real life experience to help the simulator, the sim, which we're trying to simulate reality, try to make it more realistic and I think that with more drivers being interested from the real world, it's just going to help everyone and hopefully we have this blended reality where we can really use the sim one-to-one to the real car. That's what I want.
Jason:Okay, well, said Awesome. Is there any other roundtables guys? Any other last things before we let Daniel go?
Jeff:little podcast, um, and you get to see the screen that you watch on YouTube. You know, at night, when you're trying to go to bed, or you know, you know doing whatever, and you're like Holy cow, like they're in our podcast. So, um, thank you. Uh, you know, it's a humbling, awesome experience talking to, getting to talk to you and your experience and your road and the path that you're on and, uh, wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors that you're on and, uh, wish you nothing but the best of your future endeavors.
Daniel:And, and you know, the the best takeaway is that, at the end of the day, I'm just another human being, just like everyone else, right? So nah man, I think that I think what's cool you won the daytona.
Jason:I get to do some cool stuff, but you're a goat bro, you're not.
Daniel:You know, one thing that's cool is when you're at the racetrack, I would say don't be afraid. Like for anyone is. When you're at the racetrack, I would say don't be afraid, like for anyone listening, and you're at the real racetrack. Don't be afraid to go up to drivers and start talking to them, because most people will be pretty cool. I would say, especially in sports car racing, you never know who you'll meet and maybe you've raced them even online before, so it's cool. Don't be afraid to talk to people.
Daniel:For me, I'm always out the back of the trailer sitting on a chair. People will come by and talk all the time. Like I said, just a human being. We're all the same. I get to do a cool job, I drive a race car, but it doesn't make me any better or any worse than everyone else. So, yeah, that's, that's all I have to say. I know that people are shy. In in you know real life going to the racetrack and talking to some guys or speaking to your idol whether it's a movie star or someone in a high position, it doesn't matter. Just be yourself and have fun, and you never know who you can meet.
Jason:Okay, Eric, what you got for us man.
Erick:Yeah, man, Just kind of piggybacking off of what Jeff said for me. Like I said, starting out sim racing and once the algorithm took over, I just saw this guy with these cool looking gloves all over Facebook. Every time I did a search I just saw this guy showing his gloves. He had some yellow ones, he had the bone ones, I'm like man, that's we targeted you.
Daniel:You're locked in now. Oh, I'm locked in. The tentacles are around you, you're done.
Erick:Oh yeah, yeah, I'm. I'm fully, I'm fully locked in and to be talking to you here and hear your story. That's been one of the things I love about this podcast is it's such a beautiful time in sim racing because we're getting to hear the stories of people that have been having a big impact on it and will impact it for a long time to come Definitely you, the work you and your wife are doing with the products and just bringing more respect to sim racing. I appreciate it and appreciate you coming on.
Daniel:Thank you.
Jason:All right. So, daniel, you know it's a massive pleasure. I have to give a shout out to Mike from the Sim Racing Den for making this possible. And you know it's, yeah, mike, mike's the dude man, michael, and yeah, I feel the same way. You know, I know you're like the nicest, humblest guy on the show and you know the group that you, you know the M group, the M squad that you mentioned you know it's like damn, it's like my heart is like beating so fast Like damn.
Jason:That's kind of cool, man that you have a professional driver but cares about the community and you're giving feedback, also helping simulators built out. You know, we didn't know about this, we didn't know that you helped, you know, fix the the discrepancies with the map on spa and all that stuff and, yeah, I'm just ecstatic to have you here. I really appreciate you giving us the time out of your extremely busy schedule to come on the show today and yeah, I have a lot of respect for you. I've followed you for a long time it wasn't under the Chicane podcast, that's kind of new but a huge fan of your work, not just on the track but over on your YouTube side, and also your products too, which, when we end this call, I'm probably going to go on to moreradnesscom and check out, check, check what's on there.
Jason:We had a sneak peek of the products too. So I just want to end it with this Are you, you, do you have anything for the chicane podcast?
Daniel:man, we talked about everything, we covered it all. But you know, if anyone wants to find, um, a pair of gloves for yourself, you can go to moreadnesscom. I'm sure you're gonna have it all linked and there's gonna be a code for the show and anyone listening and watching. But just if you want to get in touch amazing community on discord super engaged. We do watch parties all the time. I'll pop in in the middle of a race. I'm I even pop into the discord with like everyone, not just our team, but the, the general public and um, you know there'll be watching and I'll I'll pop in. So I really like to stay engaged with the community and uh know as many people as possible. So, yeah, you can easily get in touch with me on any social platform. Hopefully I can I answer in a timely manner. Sometimes the inbox is quite full, but I try to be accommodating and make racing as inclusive as possible.
Jason:Awesome man. So with that, guys make sure you check out Daniel Morad's YouTube channel, moradnesscom, check out all his gear and content that's available online. And with that I just want to say thank you. Everybody that's on this stream. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for making the time and for all you viewers and listeners out there, have a great start of your week. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for making the time and for all you viewers and listeners out there, have a great start of your week, thank you.
