The Chicane Podcast

Sim Racing Holiday Surprises

• Track Ghost Sim Racing • Episode 33

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Ever faced a frustrating tech saga? I sure have, with my Asher wheel ordeal finally seeing a glimmer of hope. After overcoming a labyrinth of communication hurdles with customer service, my much-anticipated wheel is on its way to Dublin. Thanks to some insights from Constantino's live stream, there's a chance the wheel's functionality might be enhanced, and I can't wait to see if the build quality lives up to the hype.

The holiday season brought a delightful surprise, not just for my son but for the whole family. Imagine the excitement of sneaking two go-karts into the garage without raising suspicions—my wife didn't see it coming! Along with this playful narrative, we explore Danny Newman Racing's intriguing new updates, promising an exhilarating evolution in the racing world.

From the racing circuits to the gaming realm, the anticipation builds with the early release of a game featuring the iconic Nuremberg track. With the support of a vibrant mod community, expectations are high for its groundbreaking features. We also journey through the storied Oulton Park circuit, discovering its rich history and unique turns. And, of course, we geek out over the impressive Soul Pack wheel, a marvel in sim racing technology, as we navigate through the world of custom-built and hand-crafted sim racing peripherals.

Link to DNR update: https://youtu.be/vZy0avosFkU?si=abOOwFJagDTn_3zJ

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
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou
Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube

Jason:

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 and Jeff Smart. Once again, how's it going, fellas? How you doing? Going good man.

Jeff:

Going good. That's going good. Man, hey, I feel like I'm with you, but I had a long day too, but I'm ready to get into it. I'm ready to talk some sim racing. I'm ready to talk some racing.

Jason:

Let's go 33 episodes and I haven't failed once. But today every dog has its day, so I'll just let you know. I mean I'm not perfect. And this show is what? What is this show, fellas? It's straight.

Erick:

No chaser.

Jason:

Straight no chaser, we don't do retakes on the Chicane Podcast. This is all. One take One go.

Jason:

Yes, sir, that's what's up. Guys, awesome, very excited for this episode. We are mid-week, mid-december, and the iRacing update is dropped. I have some news on the Asher wheel. This is going to be really short because I'm still in the middle of it. After about 30 emails and some nasty grams, I finally got Murray Motorsport to send me a shipping label and that wheel is shipped off and it should get there tomorrow. Right now it's sitting in Germany and I don't know what time it is in Germany right now, but it's probably like super early morning and it has to make its way to Dublin. So at least it's in the EU and it cleared customs. So now I'm just waiting on a replacement. And that's where I'm at with the Asher wheel situation Not happy, but at the same time, at least things are in motion, so I have high hopes for a resolution. Last episode I was really pissed off, so you. So you heard. You heard the, uh, the cries, if you may, on the on the podcast, yo jason yeah.

Jeff:

So just like looking forward for the next couple days, are, as murray motorsports planning to, as soon as they receive it, it's receive it they're putting a new one in the mail. What are we looking like here? Have you talked to them about?

Jason:

it. Yeah, they said that they're waiting for customs to clear it. I guess not on our side, customs on their side. The reason that they gave me is we can't send the replacement out, because when they send this new wheel out, the reason for them sending that wheel is for due to a warranty claim. But if there's no record of a warranty claim being received by them, then they'll get charged the customs, whatever charge that they get charged over there.

Jeff:

Yeah, no, I was just being like when they it gets delivered today, Friday, in Germany, right?

Jason:

Right away. They'll send it right away.

Jeff:

And then they send the next one back later today, hopefully, or tomorrow or Monday, or they have to do something with Asher.

Jason:

No, asher already agreed to Okay, so it should be a quick swap.

Jeff:

Yeah, he receives it. A couple do whatever, and then they send theirs back out. Yeah, Um.

Jason:

I. The emails between myself, asher and Murray got cut off after a while. It just went to straight me and Murray. They said, hey, they agreed we're going to send it back to them. But that's kind of like I have no interaction with that anymore. It's kind of like now it's just direct with the dealer, which is kind of preferred in a way, because I'm still not happy with the customer service from Asher. So having to deal with the dealer which the dealer was the one that shipped me the wheel in the first place it's a little better, because now there's no third party, if you may. That third party already agreed to accept the wheel, so we cut them out of it. And now it's just like hey, man, when we get that wheel and it clears customs, we're going to send you a new one and that old wheel will figure it out. Basically, they'll send it back to Asher and Asher will do whatever they need to do and send them a replacement. But I don't have to wait for all that mumbo jumbo, if you know what I mean.

Jason:

So I have high hopes for the wheel. Man, there's a lot of news. Yeah, man, there's a lot of news on the internet right now. Constantino's just had a live stream the other day and he has plans to further increase the functionality of the wheel. So I really want to love this wheel, so I'm giving it a second chance If it comes in, and I'm not even putting a quick release on this wheel. That's where I messed up. I customized the wheel, I changed the buttons, I put everything together, you know, got everything how I wanted it plugged it in. Didn't work. So when this wheel comes in, I'm literally opening the box, I'm keeping the wheel in the plastic and I'm plugging it in and I'm taking a video of it and if it doesn't work, I just that's it.

Erick:

Hey, soap it and if it doesn't work, I just that's it. If, if this soulpex got one waiting for you, if that I know. Right man, I'm gonna see the smoke all the way from hawaii if this wheel don't work.

Jason:

I know it. This wheel don't work. I'm gonna lose my shit, bro, straight up.

Erick:

But I, but I did just kind of want to follow up. So, outside of this issue, just from what you saw initially, like the build quality, like what are you? What? How do you feel about the wheel? From what you were able to surmise outside of it not powering on, as far as quality was, so everything else about the wheel was amazing.

Jason:

It met my expectation, you know, it met the price, like, okay, you put the wheel in your hand, you feel the buttons, you see how the wheel engages and how it feels in your hands. All of that stuff is there, um, the shifters, the buttons, the dials, the rotaries. You know, okay, it's everything I wanted in a wheel. Right, and it's because and I've always said this, guys on the show, you know, having a DDU in front of the screen is not for everybody, you know, I mean, it's, it's the ideal thing. Having a DDU in front of the wheel is the ideal thing to do if you're just a track racer. But in a truck, you know, let's say, I'm driving a truck, or flight sim that I, that I'm a fan of too. I like flight sim. Not having a DDU that can quickly disconnect, which is what we're missing in this ecosystem is and I know sim magic is working on that. They, they're working on a magnetic DDU, but then you have to have their base or there's. I don't know how it's going to work out, but I decided to mount my DDU off to the side. And now, because it's off to the side, now I want wheels to have screens on them again because it's the quickest thing have screens on them again because it's the quickest thing. It's not the most ideal thing, but it's the quickest thing to have a glance. And I've found ways to run two lovely dashboards at the same time and have the left side be a track map and also look at relatives, and then the main screen be just the two quadrants, the two MFMs, if you may, and that's it. That's why it's mounted this way and I really love the SIMDash 6.8 that I bought, really high quality.

Jason:

I still recommend the DDU, but it depends what's important to you essentially, like you know, jeff has a SoulPack. It's got a five-inch screen. It is the perfect. That is the probably the sexiest F1 wheel I've ever seen, other than the Bavarian. Simtech is a really close second here and I know it does weigh more, but it probably costs a lot more too. So you have to factor that stuff in what's more important to you. I drive F1 cars, I drive Formula, but I'm mainly a GT person, so I want my GT wheel to be the king. You know what I mean. I have a Sim Magic wheel. It works, but I want that step up. You know what I mean. I have a sim magic wheel. It works, but I want that step up. You know what I mean. I want to have that high-end wheel that I can use, you know well, that makes sense.

Erick:

Okay, so that's so. Essentially, it's their fight to lose at this point. They've got a good product, but they just gotta get the fit and finish right.

Jason:

Yes, and everything else about the wheel, the wire, the box, the. The wheel doesn't use stickers, so I was excited to show that off. It uses actual buttons that you put in.

Jason:

There is no sticker so there's no bleed through. It's just that the screen didn't come on, so I need to. I need for the screen to be on. You know what I mean, especially paying. I need for all the buttons to work first of all. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I didn't think I was clear on that. It's not like I hate the wheel or hated it out the box. I actually loved it.

Jason:

I picked it up and I was like this is exactly what I thought it was going to be, but then I plugged it in and it didn't work. That's something very separate, but if I didn't like it, I would have straight returned this. I would have been like see ya.

Erick:

So giving it a second chance, yeah, yeah that's a big deal for you because I know it'll be on the first thing smoking if it don't meet the, if you don't cut the mustard.

Jason:

So I mean, you know how it is, man you spend something. You spend a lot of money on something. You're gonna expect to see the money. Where did I spend this money?

Jeff:

yeah, you're being pretty patient, buddy, buddy for how much you spent.

Jason:

I'm being patient.

Jeff:

We're measuring in weeks at this point, until you get a wheel that works.

Jason:

Yeah, I know it's been early, late November and we're mid-December. So, patience is a virtue. It sure is, yeah.

Erick:

I think it'll pay off. I hope so. Plug it up and it lights up.

Jason:

And then I'm also. I'm trying to be neutral and not negative. I'm trying to be really neutral about it because I know many people purchase this wheel and they love it. You know, mike, the Sim Racing then reviewed it and had nothing but great things to say about it. I'm pretty sure he would have told us hey, I plugged this thing in, it didn't work. You know, constantinos is an Asher Racing partner. I don't think he would put his name on something that he didn't trust or didn't like.

Jeff:

So that's I agree. We could just chalk it up to bad luck here when the next one comes hopefully it works, and just dumb luck of getting a, a, a a run to the litter, if you will.

Jason:

Yeah, and to recap this off right, Um, it's one thing that the wheel didn't work, but then the way, the way they told me to fix it myself that that that needs to be worked on, and I gave them plenty of feedback. Are they gonna listen? Who knows, but you'll definitely know on the next episode, um, where we're at with that. So that's gonna be my portion of announcements over to eric. Thanks for asking the questions, though. Appreciate it, my man yeah, no problem.

Erick:

um yeah. So for me, as far as announcements go, nothing major. I love to say I got some new kit or something like that. But yeah, man, there's nothing new on the horizon for me right now it's Christmas time, so trying to trying to be a good boy.

Jason:

Eric, you're being a little too hard on yourself, man. You just purchased a brand new PC and a rig. Come on man.

Erick:

Exactly. That's why I'm trying to be good now, trying to get through the holidays, get everybody else situated.

Jason:

What about that butt kicker bro?

Erick:

Man, my time is coming.

Jeff:

Wouldn't we just say patience is a virtue? I know yeah.

Erick:

My time is coming. I got it. Look at one click amazon to be burning up my doorstep.

Jason:

There you go, man. Now when, when it's that time, it's that time, bro, when it's that time. It's that time. Uh, what about you, jeff? What's going on with you, brother?

Jeff:

no man, we're just uh. I think this is well you. We got week 14 going on in iRacing, so I'm not a big fan of week 14. I think I've advertised that in the group chat. But, dude, honestly, like I got in the, I've been spending time in that SF23 formula car and just jumping into the Circuit of America and, dude, I don't know what is just about that track. It's challenging. It's uh, circuit of america and, dude, I don't know what is just about that track. It's challenging. Um, it's a long and I've been trying to do faster and faster laps and it's just as uh, dude, it's like reinvigorated the, the, the, I'd say. I think I texted you a message the other day like 11 or late at night. I was like dude, this is just freaking awesome. I was like I love this sim racing stuff. It was just, that was a blast. Yeah, word for word. He said I love sim racing. I was like I love this sim racing stuff.

Jason:

It was just yeah, it was a blast. Yeah, word for word he said I love sim racing, I love it.

Jeff:

Yeah, it just was like oh man, but no, nothing super new. We did do some Christmas shopping for the little dude. Wife agreed to a got him a little go-kart from a hospital, we all know bro.

Jason:

Eric hook me up. This go-kart is not for his son, bro.

Jeff:

So let me finish. Let me finish because it gets better. So I sent it to Jason. It goes like 28 miles an hour. It's electric, right, so we can just drive it in our back little area where we have guest parking and stuff and nobody's going to complain. So they get some cones. So wife sent me to costco to pick it up and I saw it and I was like, oh, they got two of them. And as I was driving home I was like, dear lord, please protect me from my wife when I get home.

Jason:

No Wait, a minute you bought two of them, Bro.

Jeff:

Somebody's got to raise rubber paint with my boy.

Erick:

Oh yeah, listen, I'm coming over. Man, if you got two of them, I'm coming over bro.

Jeff:

I'll bring the cigars and brandy Late at night I was like, hey, can you come out and help me unload this thing? They're working heavy. And she comes around and saw two of them and she's like I had a feeling that this was going to happen, oh man. So she was like I mean, I picked the perfect wife, I mean she's awesome. But she was like I really expect this to happen. And I was like, yes, I survived this.

Jason:

Okay, yeah, man, she's super cool, I'm pumped.

Jeff:

Can't wait for Christmas to come around, see the little dude in there and hopefully he'll have a blast driving the thing. And yeah, we got to wait what like a week or so, a week and a half or two weeks. But yeah, that's it for me.

Jason:

Yeah. So Jeff hits me up and he's like dude, I gotta pick something up. I ain't got nowhere to put it and I was like man, listen, I just my garage is an absolute nightmare and I was like listen take the dimensions right now, let me know, and he's like dude. It's like six, six feet right and length, 220 pounds. I was like what the hell is that bro? So you put 400 pounds basically on that truck? It's not a body.

Jeff:

Yeah, I mean, it's a full-size pickup truck, but they're not small boxes, right, they're fully, like damn near fully, assembled. But I can't wait for the-. So are you going to?

Jason:

and before we move on right, I'm just curious because I just think I wish my dad bought me a go-kart. Bro, you know what I mean. You're going to make his freaking day. Bro, You're going to make his day. Are you going to put like a bow on it or are you going to wrap it up Come?

Jeff:

on Jeff, come on bro.

Jason:

We thought about Doing a reveal, like a cloth on it and just like revealing it.

Jeff:

Yeah, I don't know yet we got a couple ideas. Whether we just leave it in the garage and he finds it later, or comes down the stairs and see it, I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out.

Jason:

See, you got to get him a helmet now, bro, and it better be a ride, bro.

Jeff:

I think my brother's got. He has to take that because he had no idea what to get care of that.

Jason:

Tell him a Rye or Shoei, bro. That's it $800,000 for a little kid helmet.

Jeff:

For down the street.

Jason:

Just go down the street, do it 20 miles. That's what's up. Man, all right? Well, I'm excited to hear. I want to know his reaction. Definitely, christmas is coming up, so it's hard on all of us. Trust me, I did some spending too, and I'm still spending, because I have this problem that if there's more gifts under the tree for me, that's impossible. I need to have more gifts for her. So I don't know, that's just, I don't know. That's the ego speaking.

Jason:

But today we're going to go over discussion portion. We're going to go over DNR's new update that is about to air, if it's not out already. It is a game changer and I just want to showcase the change log here, live here on the show, and we're going to get that going right now. So let me go ahead and share my screen and we're going to share this one Boom. You should be able to see that and I won't drag on this too long. But Danny Newman Racing came on the show a few months back and when he came on the show, he was going through a major revision and a lot of stuff was new. But now that's happening basically all over again. So I'm going to go ahead and skim through this, so stay tuned for that one, and AC Evo is also a planned execution.

Jeff:

Somebody put it on Google Earth like the box. Yeah, dude, yeah, it's like the box, it's crazy. And then there's the track. You know it's like huge and the.

Erick:

Nuremberg is huge. Yeah, it looks like a dime.

Jason:

Dude, the Nuremberg has like 14 miles worth of road or something like that. It's stupid. Like something like 70 something corners. It's ridiculous. And then you have the entire town to explore. You could rent a car In the game. Dude, I don't want to get my hopes up. Man, it's an early release. This is what happens. We get all hyped up. So to sit. Man, it's an early release. This is what happens. We get all hyped up.

Erick:

So, to set expectations, they said that the open world would not be available to trial until the summer, like summer 2025.

Jason:

All right, so at least they're open and honest about it. Okay, good yeah.

Erick:

It's not going to be. It says available in early access from summer 2025.

Jason:

So when I saw that I kind of got my you know hopes right yeah, man, because I don't want them to focus on the open world I want you to get the game yeah, I want you to get the game running, get the physics, get the engine, get, get it all dialed in and then you add the fluff right, which is the open world is the fluff because, to be honest with you guys, if you guys want open world content manager, we can get you half of europe right now I can go anywhere.

Jeff:

Servers, yep servers with people.

Jason:

It's got it all, trust me, and that's kind of where they're getting this from right. They're getting this from those modders.

Erick:

Yeah, the mod community, that's smart.

Jason:

Right, it really is, but anyway, let me get back on topic. I know that one's hard, that was hard to get away from, yeah, but so this is the change lock here. So I'm going to just read through this, scroll through and let you guys know what's coming, and you really need to check out. He just released the video on his YouTube channel showcasing the new plugin Scripted content. So this blob right here is basically saying that they noticed a large and DNR profiles were becoming big and they could affect performance. I asked him about this and he's like, yeah, they could. It's not really everybody, but we're trying to make them more efficient to work on the different PCs and whatever, and it's supposed to give you a little performance boost.

Jason:

Button boxes, steering wheel everything is getting reworked. New true dark mode now applies to wheel button functions in all four TDM themes. So if you have the lovely plugin, there's red, orange, blue, which is my favorite, and purple, I believe, and now you can, instead of just turning it on and off, now you can cycle between the colors and it works on all 17 of his themes, basically on his wheel themes. So this will allow you to use a button. Excuse me, I jumped ahead. It says now, when TDM is active, your active button retains the animation, but now in TDM colors, so you could just cycle through colors. Custom button functions for both steering wheels and button boxes now work on all 17 themes, not just the lovely dashboard. This is huge. So, for example, I'm going to give you an example. So Eric, when he first installed DNR, he's like why is my button flashing red? Remember he?

Jeff:

asked the question.

Jason:

I was like no, that's an effect from his profile. It's like the flashing power button is the ignition, meaning the ignition's off, and then when you turn it on it turns green. But then you can set buttons to do what, to do different things. So if you set a button to flash your headlights, then your entire wheel flashes blue. Or if your DRS is coming up and you're in the zone, it turns yellow, and when you're in the zone, when you're approaching the zone, it's yellow. When you're in the zone, it turns green, and when you're in the zone, when you're approaching the zone, is yellow. When you're in the zone, it turns green. So those are just a few examples.

Jason:

Now it works on any theme. And what does that mean? That means that for those people like Jeff that have a soul peck that that wheel isn't supported by DNR and it's not because he doesn't want to, it's because they need to send him a wheel. He needs to have a physical wheel to build these profiles. It's no longer a requirement, basically because you can install a and he can correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I'm perceiving this is, you can install his 5.0 profile, which is the telemetry profile, and you should be able to install a custom theme for any wheel and program it yourself. I may be wrong on this I got to double check with him but regardless, this update doesn't tie you to the lovely theme, because the lovely theme was the only one that had effects.

Erick:

So that's dope.

Jason:

Yeah, it's amazing man. So let me continue here. Let's see Custom button functions. We covered that Accurate redline values are now baked into DNR profiles directly and not taken from SimHub. So they're building the actual profiles themselves and they started with iRacing and iRacing, trust me, it's one-to-one, Even though the red match was one-to-one with DNR. But now the red line is also one-to-one. Spotter function has been added to button boxes so if you have those, you can use a spotter, which is awesome. So half the button box will flash purple. If they're on your right side, you know radar, so you can have your wheel flash purple and it lets you know hey, there's a car next to you, yeah, Plus American.

Erick:

Yeah man.

Jason:

So what else? Introducing flag box themes. So now we got themes for flag boxes. Custom colors also for flag boxes. I'm going through this Flag box dual gears. He's getting many requests for all this stuff. You can go on the website and read these changes. I'll include a link in the description.

Jason:

Flagbox low fuel RPM. Theme colors Browse are not able to utilize theme colors for their red line function, so you could change the red line. If you don't want red line to be red, you could change it to purple or blue or whatever you want. I like red. Red means dead, red means bad, red means yeah, time to change. Change gear. Add a new option for generic red line blinks, which I just mentioned. Individual flag customization so you now have globally. You will now globally be able to disable or enable individual flags with the DNR plugin, so you can customize it further. Ea Sports, f1 games, which we don't care about, now support RPM telemetry. Okay, moving on, adding new functions to the custom button box functions on both wheels and button boxes A brand new generalized function for button boxes and steering wheels that add a latching button effect and a press button effect.

Jason:

So, for example, if you have a mute button right and when you press that mute button, you want it to turn red, and when you press it again, it'll turn green. So that's what latching means. You can do that now on any of his themes, bro. That's amazing. So if you want yeah, man, if you want your headlights, I don't know if you want, let's say, your wipers, to change color, you could do that and you could set it to a latching profile. You could do that and you could set it to a latching profile so you can have it one color for on, one color for off. Just little examples. And then there's been a bunch of changes here and fixes. I won't go through all of these, but, as you can see, the amount of changes on this update is amazing.

Erick:

Yeah, that's a big update.

Jason:

Yes, and I spoke to him and I said listen, and by no means he's not paying the Chicane Podcast to talk about his plugin or products. Just want to make sure. I just respect the fact that he continues to find ways to reward people that support him, and that's where this is coming from. It's a small price to pay to have someone do all this work at the tip of your fingers. For example, we're getting AC Evo. I don't have time to build profiles for another simulator. I want to jump in, give them a few days and start installing away. So that's all I have today for the DNR update. Again, I may or may not be correct about some of the things, because I'm just perceiving it the way it's written and we can also clarify that if we need to. Or Daniel, if you're watching, daniel's a listener and watcher of the show.

Jeff:

Post a comment. Yeah, man correct us.

Jason:

What do you call it? Save round alibi, that's what.

Erick:

Jeff calls it. Yeah, there you go.

Jason:

Yeah, there we go. Anyway, I'm just overly excited. Check out his video. He's got a 15-minute video. I'll include that in the description as well. He's showing off the new plugin and his UI. Everything got redesigned. Oh wait, I do have actually, guys. Wait a minute. I will show off some pictures that I have on the UI that he shared with me. Let me just grab those real quick, Okay yeah to the.

Jeff:

You know, if you haven't went and checked out daniel newman racing or even just on youtube, like check them out on youtube, check you know. There's tons of people that have demos of them. If you've never been to the site, go to the site, just try them out. It's got a bunch of free stuff in there you can give it to, you know, and if you like it, it saves a ton of time in sim hub doing it yourself, because I have had to do it myself on the SoulPack. There isn't anything.

Jason:

Oh, wait a minute, you didn't do a bad job, which we're about to see.

Jeff:

We'll get there. We're going to get there on the show, not at all.

Jason:

Let me shut up but hours here's the picture. So here I got what the plugin will look like, and very soon. Basically, this is the new UI and how it looks. It has an auto update feature. You can check for updates, but it's supposed to update on its own. And then this is what I'm talking about, right here you can you can customize, dude.

Jason:

Yeah, you're right, that's how it figures out which button is which yeah, so if you want rotary effect to be static or be abs or be engine map, it's going to change color and then you can customize that color again. How does that work? I know I need to get you on this, bro.

Jeff:

I need to get you onto this, that's why I'm curious to see how that works with a wheel that he doesn't have, Because I have to put like it's crazy how I can do this stuff.

Jason:

I got to check with him if it'll work or not. Or if there's a way he can. I got to check, well, it'll work or not. Or if there's a way he can, I got to check. Well, dan, if you're listening, watching, correct us if we're wrong here. Seriously, but I'm just overly excited for this. Look at this. And then you can see on the wheel what button has what effects. So you got headlights and the flasher effects so you can have it mapped to one button. You know, like using um sim hub, remapper your pit limiters here. What is this value? Up and down, left right indicator toggle button. This is just an example, you know. And then here is his button box uh, layout. And this is all coming within a week I would say within a week from from from airing this show.

Jason:

I think they're working really hard to push this out before christmas. Before christmas is the target date for this. And yeah, dude, and it's, it's a lot of work. I can see where the work's. Yeah, it's a lot of work. Anyways, check out Danny Newman Racing. Hopefully he comes on the show again at some point. I don't know, anything's possible. But yeah, let me go ahead and stop sharing my screen. There we go, and I'll pass this over to Eric for the next portion. That's going to be it for me. Yeah, I'll add all the information and videos.

Jason:

And it looks like oh, here we go. First of all, guys, we're not an iRacing podcast, please. I've seen a lot of comments there before, even though we're fans, you know what I'm saying.

Jeff:

I drove more AMS2 this week than iRacing for the record.

Erick:

Yeah, I tried some new Sims too.

Jeff:

But without further ado, tell us about Season 1. Iracing yeah.

Erick:

I was going to say there are definitely other Sims, other one, iracing. Yeah, I was going to say there are definitely other sims other than iRacing and if you are racing those sims Automobilisa 2, a lot of them are getting updates. I think really in anticipation for AC Evo. To be honest, I think everybody's kind of polishing up whatever they got going in anticipation of that dropping, and our racing is no different. But our racing is very important in the sim racing community.

Erick:

But, like jason says, we're not like uh, you know I racing only or, you know, prefer I racing over anything else. It's just, it's one of the sims and is happens to have gotten an update. That's pretty big and I just want to go over that um kind of lightly. Um, so there's some new cars added, new tracks added, specifically um, the bmw m2 probably is one of the more interesting ads because it's free and it has some uh has a unique feature with a auto traction control feature on it, um, but it comes with a you know a nice little livery on it and it's a nice, you know a nice little car to drive and yeah, to deal with 45, 45 text messages between you guys talking about this damn car this week.

Erick:

Yes, hey, look it's. It makes a man out of you, man, I don't know, I don't know what else to tell you. I had to run back to my ferrari. It makes a man out of you.

Jason:

Huh, listen bro, this is the best free car that they have hands down hands down.

Erick:

Yeah, I paid for my ferrari, they can delete all the other cars.

Jason:

I promise you, they can. They can just remove them now.

Erick:

I mean, unless it sounds great.

Jason:

The sound is great, great, looks great yeah drives great, um, but yeah, the m2.

Erick:

Uh, they also added the ferrari 499p and then, yeah, then they have, um, the supercars, gen 3, um, which makes its debut with the camaro and the ford mustang, which you know they sound nuts with that american muscle.

Erick:

Uh, then you got some, uh, some new tracks. Uh, husset's speedway I think I'm pronouncing that correctly uh is a dirt oval. Uh, you got thruxton circuit, which is, uh, one of england's fastest circuits. Uh, new Hampshire Motor Speedway. And then the demo drive feature used to be known as test drive, but this has been rebuilt and integrates directly into the iRacing UI going forward, so that's pretty cool to know. I think one of the more the things that will affect most people will be this debris refresh.

Jeff:

I think I see most people talking about this portion too. Yeah, go ahead.

Erick:

Yeah, and this is one of those things that our race, where our race kind of separates itself from everything else. I play Gran Turismo and you get dirty tires and it's more of a thing you just kind of know happens. Right, if I run on the grass, I know when I get back on the pavement I'm going to have a little less traction until that wears off, or if I run in the gravel or something like that, but visually there are no like if a car behind me comes up they have no indicator to know. Oh, somebody just ran off track and came back on track and there are no impacts.

Erick:

This is where iRacing said hold my beer it's wild so somebody runs off on the gravel, runs off in the in the grass, and they come back on track. That is an entirely new element for you to interact with as another driver. Right, it doesn't just impact them, not impacts everybody. Depending on how bad it is, it can impact the race for several laps, it can spread for yards, it can be carried by arrow. The wind of different cars can pick up debris and spread it across the track. So it just adds another element that is realistic. But I think I don't know if anybody really even thought to add that as something, for I think a lot of people were nervous that it was going to take a hit to the frames per second and the performance wise.

Jeff:

But I think a lot of reading, a lot of the, the uh comments on, uh, you know, social media, really I think people were pleasantly surprised with the lack of hit to the frames per second and, uh, you know other performance related um things with the game which was surprising and they also updated, surprisingly surprising, yeah, the graphics and the colors look better but now

Jason:

it's a how do you say this when you talk about the uh, you know, debris on the track. That's another thing you got to worry about. Now you know, if somebody went off and they came on track, where do they come on from? What kind of stuff is on the road now? Yeah, it's not just an immersion thing, it's not just the graphical thing. If you run your tires on that, you're going to lose grip. You know that's kind of insane, it's kind of great. That's kind of great.

Erick:

Yeah, it's crazy to think that in real life that's something that they just kind of automatically kind of factor in, I guess, and even thinking about a crew chief telling you where somebody went off track. Now you have to take better note of like okay, turn seven, somebody went off track. Now you have to take better note of like okay, turn seven, somebody went off track that's a good, great point instead of that's half of track away I better pay attention.

Jeff:

Yeah great great point yeah, is it sand.

Jason:

What's on the track? You know exactly or who else is spinning out after he rejoined the race. So the guy rejoins. The other guy runs over that debris, he spins out of control. Oh my god, it's about to go down bro. Yeah, it's.

Erick:

Uh, it's probably about to go down bro if I had to classify it, I would say it's probably the second biggest addition to rain on the oh yeah as far as impacting how you drive and without hitting the graphics, you know, yeah yep, so that that was cool. Um, but kind of finishing up the update. Uh, there were some netcode improvements. I can't really speak to them firsthand, but they say they did them um netcode was already solid eric yeah, that's what I was gonna say I.

Erick:

I haven't had any problems since I've started racing, so they improved it.

Jason:

I'll take their word for it you are racing, is that one game that you can go bumper to bumper and not? Oh, you know what they did improve, eric, I will tell you, and, and jeff could probably attest to this you notice when somebody's lagging and the car just jumps in the air oh, it drives me crazy that's what they fixed.

Jeff:

Yeah, and occasionally you get the car that's like over here and then all of a sudden it's moving around and it doesn't even touch, and this one's like yeah yeah, but that's not really.

Jason:

It wasn't really an iRacing problem. I think it was just uh's connected.

Jeff:

Crummy internet somewhere.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah, but now they found a way to mitigate that somehow, I don't know. It's kind of cool. So that's what they're talking about, eric, about the flying cars.

Erick:

Okay, it's nerve wracking bro.

Jason:

I'm doing 180 miles an hour on a straight and I see this car just go like that and come back down, and go like that and come back down, like what the hell is going on oh yeah, that's nuts, that's crazy, oh man.

Erick:

So to your point, um, they did have some specific net code related issues that they they fixed, which is always great, always great to see. Um, so, uh, the specular lighting upgrade um, just improved the lighting, which kind of what you were mentioning earlier about the colors I think this is a part of that says it gives it a brighter, more realistic look. Um, then the spotter damage effects reports when you take damage, your spotter will not inform you if it'll have a negative effect on aspects of a car's performance, which is is nice to hear. When I go into a wall, they can give me a detailed report of how my car is broken. Uh, rain racing uh, the formula v joins the five new cars that's a big hell no, if there's one car, that is a hell

Jeff:

in the rain, no wait, yeah, it feels like it's rain anyways y'all aren't hyped about driving the formula v in rain let's go, bro, let's go.

Jason:

Let's live stream this, let's go. You know live stream, but people just bouncing off the walls and we can do that. Yeah, I'll let them have their formula v downshift the v in the rain, bro in a puddle. Oh, let's see what happens.

Erick:

Look, if you want to know, the biggest difference between GT7 and our racing is the impact of downshifting on your ability to drive straight.

Jason:

In that.

Erick:

V. It does not like it at all.

Jason:

Don't like it.

Erick:

Yeah, but the last two things. Ai racing, it says, along with all five new cars and three new layouts, the Williams Toyota FW31 is also AI enabled. In addition, ai opponents will flash their headlights when they're looking to make a move and have seen other hosts of driving improvements. So that's always cool. And setups, it says over 400 new vehicle setups have been created for many of our most popular cars. So these are apparently not even all the release notes, but just kind of the highlights that the guys over at iRacing chose to highlight. But always great to see, you know, just people kind of improving things that people are passionate about in these sims.

Jason:

Well, they, in my opinion, they have to do this because you have a big, you got a big game coming out next month. So, we need to get iRacing or any other. Lmu just had a big update too, and it's kind of like AMS2 had a big update. So they're like Just bought, you bought it. Nice, that's what's up. Okay, man, let us know. And I'm the next episode bro how's it going?

Erick:

my amazon cart man it's. It's ready to go. I've been kind of being nice with the software going to, you know, getting some deals on that, but that hardware is coming, man okay, okay, that's what's up.

Jason:

That's what's up. It's fun. It's fun. Ams2 is dope. Ams2 is fun. It has all kinds of different classes for you to go through vehicle classes and, yeah, totally worth it tons of tracks and stuff too, yeah track versions years, but anyways, I'm excited, uh, for the next part. Jeff, we've been waiting, let's go. Yeah, we have what? What was that bell?

Erick:

hey, I love that hey man, I just had to give him a proper intro, man.

Jason:

That was the call of duty, bro.

Jeff:

So we've been putting this off for a while. But I've been talking about my Soul Peck wheel for a while now and we've been telling people, the listeners, that we've been going to do a quick review, show it off, you know, give my feedback to it. So, without further ado, my new good friend over here, uh, my soul pack wheel, um, that's where I kind of talked to my experience with it, you know, as Jason's going through um, his with, um, with, with, with his wheel is, so I reached out to um that's beautiful.

Jeff:

Yeah, thank you, um. And I just was like, hey, um, what's you know the wait time or whatever? And I think they said, uh, you know about eight to ten days and then it'll be in the mail. Um, and they told me that if you get it from soulpeck I they didn't tell me this, but they kind of insinuated it that they built it for you. Like, they didn't have this wheel with the colors that I wanted, the knobs, et cetera. They built it, which was super cool.

Jeff:

And then, a couple of days later, I'm looking at online, uh, you know the, the, the, the wheel just drooling over. I can't wait for it to get here. And I was like, hey, you know what? Like, I don't really like their button layout that they have. You know, it just wasn't where I wanted to put my button. So I reached out, I just sent him an email and this is zero use of the podcast here, this is just Jeff Smart emailing SoulPack as a customer, right and he was like, hey, I don't really care for the layout you guys have. Is it possible that you send me the wheel with no stickers on it? Don't put your stickers on it, just send me the sheets that you normally send everybody else and I'll put my own on to kind of do the layout that I had, and they're like yep, no problem. So it gets delivered as it's supposed to be, with nothing on it, but anyways, so some feedback.

Jeff:

The reason I went with this wheel over all of the other ones is, uh, first and foremost, a. It speaks to me. It just it just looks awesome like. When I see it in my rig it makes me want to jump in the rig and spin laps, just because it's a. It's a cool, sexy looking wheel that I think I can drive something, drive the wheels off something with. Uh. The second is they stuffed a huge screen or monitor in here. Um, I think it's by. I think it's the biggest monitor probably on any wheel I'm not sure I've seen a bigger monitor or a screen on on a wheel.

Jason:

It's a five inch display on there, that's big yeah it's huge right, so it's super nice.

Jeff:

Uh, everything that you want, you know as you're driving is bigger there, so to speak, than you know a lot of the other wheels. But uh, um comes with a standard, uh, quick attachment, but it's like you put an nrg bro nice carbon fiber matches.

Jeff:

But, dude, like that's sexy, that's pretty diesel right there, right for a for a sim racing wheel that I mean that looks like something that george russell could take out of the wheel and put on. You know, as you got out of the wheel coming in first place and some so uh, anyways, super nice wheel carbon fiber.

Jeff:

Oh yeah, my man um but I I'm not going to kind of give a full review, just kind of give some quick feedback on things that I think are super interesting and different from this wheel versus kind of a lot of the other wheels that I've seen around. But just a quick, super nice, crisp clicks of oh, nice, you know the buttons, very nice, so you get good feedback there. But really what I wanted to show is you know, first of all, I did my. You know, uh, shout out Daniel Newman, um, and soul pack, hook the brother up with a wheel so he could hook, help us out. Um, this was my layout. Uh, you can see it like breathing there, um, the lights, I don't know if I can do it very well, um, but that was all me. I spent like hours trying to do this nice little fade in, fade out thing with the different lights set up. Um, it does come with, you know, it's all. It's a handful of ones you can pick, but I just wanted my color.

Jeff:

You know the colors of the mercedes, yeah and uh, obviously, I think it looks sick bro thank you, thank you, and obviously the um, uh, the lovely dashboard with your own graphic and you know my name on there just kind of looks clean, looks clean, looks like a wheel that would be in the mercedes car, um, yeah, anyways, so two things that I think are super cool. I just want to point out, um, so obviously you got your, you know your rotaries here, um, but something is super cool about these is this is a rotary and you can see the lights going up and down that give you feedback of the way you're spinning it.

Jason:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Also, when you push in and you can spin it again, that's a different setting, oh, different input. So you could go, you know, brake bias push it in traction control, and same thing on this side. So you know you bias, push it in traction control and same thing on this side. So you know, you've basically doubled your rotaries and the same thing. With these, you know, you get a little light setup I don't know if you can see it there as it changes to give you a little feedback but then also you can push in and turn, and it's a different setting.

Jason:

So it basically doubles your knobs right and just gives you more settings and what you can do with the wheel. And this is without sim hub remapper. If we put, if we put remapper on this, that's four times the buttons. Four times.

Jeff:

That's crazy that is insane. Yeah, so they all come carbon fiber with the. You know the base and there is zero flex. You can hear, hear with the high-quality mic here.

Jason:

Yeah, look at the cable, Look at the connection that's secure, like screwed in Nothing.

Jeff:

Yeah, you don't have to worry about catching it on your knee or something or on your rig as you're turning it. No, it's fantastic. I run, you know, the normal lovely dashboard dash on here and these are also different buttons. Buttons too that you got here on the side. It's got your standard um buttons. It won't go. If I was in the Sima, you know I have my I had to put make my own um pit limiter, so everything flashes. Um, you know it's. I got my DRS. When I have DRS enabled, it flashes at me. Uhiel newman, please figure out a way to work this whole thing. To get me one. Get, get one of these. Uh, because you're going to do a hell of a better job than I am when it comes to putting one of the you did a hell of a job.

Jason:

Look at this wheel, looks yeah. Yeah, I mean, I took some time man, like when I turn, when I hit the but it's a good example, right I mean, of how much time it takes to set up one yeah absolutely.

Jeff:

Um, yeah, I hit the ignition button and it does like a little animation change and then it fires up. Um, just, oh bro, it takes forever to do this stuff to make it look nice. So, daniel newman, it gave me appreciation for, uh, you know the work that you do to make us to hit download, install, update and boom, we got like a solid product. Took us five minutes, took you five hours, but we appreciate it. Try to get your hands on one of these guys.

Jeff:

I'm not going to go into too much detail, other than guys like it was expensive. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it was cheap, but I look at my rig and I'm like, oh man, it just speaks to me that I just want to get in there and go. There's other wheels that are just as sturdy. This one just speaks to me. It has for a long time Finally found a way to make it happen and pull the trigger. And when I get in there it just makes me want to hammer down right, uh, you know, drive fast and break late, but uh, like Jason was saying I did have a DDU on my rig Um, but now that I have such a big screen, you can obviously see I have taken my DDU off a because I've tried like 90% formula Um.

Jeff:

So I try to just keep it realistic um and keep this there um and don't have the DDU Um, but with the biggest screen I took me a little bit of time, maybe a week or two, but it's amazing how fast um. I found all I really cared about was the gear and the RPM with a formula race for the most part Um, you know it. It it's been a pretty easy transition losing the DDU um to such a nice screen. But uh, solpec crushed it. Love the wheel. Uh, not getting any support or anything from them.

Jeff:

Um, for saying it just a a happy customer. Um, for saying it just a, a a happy customer Um, and uh, I love it every time I get in the in the uh in the rig Um, it just speaks to me, makes me want to go fast and drive and I get in there probably the rig more because of it. Um, so happy to answer any questions. If anybody got any questions on the wheel, my feedback uh, hey, leave a comment. Happy to uh comment back to you and we can communicate, talk and give a little bit more feedback. But uh yeah, just a solid piece of equipment here, um it's the largest man I'm in love with it.

Jason:

I love with it looks like a piece super clean looking so if I didn't, if I didn't have a csx3 and I was shopping for a formula wheel, that's what I would buy, hands down. I I'm going to say it right here, right now, because of that screen size, you know, most wheels come with a 4.3 inch display and for some that's not big enough, you know. So having a five inch display dead in your face, it kind of rules out the DDU a little bit.

Jeff:

However, if you change wheels, then then that's another, that's a different thing yeah, you know, and I think when I do jump into a set of you know, with the um discord servers, it would be I do have to get a round wheel, um. But I thought about the ddu for that I'm like, oh, it would be a pain in the ass to put it back on. But then I was like you know, with those cars it's kind of cool to use the, uh, the gauges that are already in the car, you know in game.

Jeff:

Yeah, so you know they actually have, like you know what dials that move opposed to. You know RPM light and all that other stuff. So, um, yeah, I mean it was a lot of money, like Jason and I talked about it. It's our trophy wheel, the trophy wheel, love it, show it off. Happy to talk to anybody that wants to talk about SoulPack wheels, because in my opinion they knocked it out of the park and this is what I'm talking about Jeff.

Jason:

Found what works for him. Don't take our show or don't take anybody's YouTube video, literal. Don't let anybody tell you what you need. You know what I'm saying. Find what works for you and set it the way you like. There is no right way or wrong. There's certain things. Right. I'm going to tell you get an 80-20 rig. If you don't, you're going to hate life. I promise it's going to be difficult. Rig if you don't, you're gonna hate life. I promise it's gonna be difficult. But a steering wheel or screen or, um, any peripheral accessory, it's not for everybody. You know what I mean. Some people, some people have a different system. If you jump into my rig, you're freaking lost because my buttons do all kinds of shit I did you it was.

Jeff:

it was definitely not one of the more popular wheels, um you know there are other ones out there. It is slowly, especially with um, you know, uh, hearing that they were at the convention, um, so, and hopefully this will help cause you know it's an awesome wheel. They were quick turnaround. I don't mean to jump on the customer service portion that you were kind of alluding to, but you know it was hours, definitely not a day. Not even a day didn't go by before I hear back from them. That's awesome.

Jason:

That's how it should be yeah, super.

Jeff:

nothing but good things to say about the team at Solpec and the product.

Jason:

Or, at the very minimum, just have somebody say hey, we're really slammed right now. We're going to get back to you. Just give us a day. You know what I'm saying? Communicate.

Jeff:

Some communication. And to go back to weeks ago with Fanatec that was the ultimate death sentence. They wouldn't even get back to people for weeks, yeah, weeks is they wouldn't even get back to people for weeks, yeah, weeks.

Jason:

So you're going to I mean, it's the no call, no show kind of deal. Once you do that, you're done. You know what I mean. So, in a nutshell, but I you, honestly, jeff, you made us, you made us a believer in the wheel, because I didn't see it. I was like, well, well, no, you don't really see it online, you don't really have it, people using it. But then, after that convention that you know, uh, what is it? The, uh, the apex.

Jason:

Everybody was, um, apparently raving over that wheel and we heard it from himself, mike the sim racing, uh, from the sim racing yeah, he did tell us that was there michael pagliaro came on the show and said hey, uh, sopex, actually kind of popular over there, you know what I mean, and a lot of people were raving off of it. So hopefully that gives them the drive to make, I think the only two.

Jeff:

You know what I mean. Yeah, the only thing that maybe turning people off is it's in there like they ship and make them in turkey. Uh, weird place like I just would have never suspected, and yeah, so, uh, I was like you know they're showing up everywhere.

Jason:

Look at yeah, look at bst. Bavarian simtech. That's another company that's just came out of nowhere. They're a mom and pop shop, basically. And the same thing if you order a wheel today. Because I looked at him. So here's the secret sauce. If the Asher comes back, effed up Again, bavarian SimTech is the next contender. But then when I looked, they're like oh yeah, if you order a wheel from us today, it takes us four weeks to build the wheel, so they're hand-built as well. So a lot of those companies are coming up, but you know what I prefer? That Having something in your hands that was hand-built specifically for you.

Jeff:

That makes it a thousand more times more valuable and more special and maybe it had the feeling that this one was being built for me. Right, I ordered black, the knobs, the standard. I forget what they call the, the black and silver model yeah, you can't just buy this thing yeah, they were there.

Jeff:

Yeah, they're like hey, yeah, I was like, hey, no stickers, yeah, okay, yeah, we won't put them on for you, like it was being built as I was talking to them, which is kind kind of cool, right, I mean it just is, um, now I can't speak that they do that for everybody, um, but I, maybe I was lucky, so awesome. But nothing about nothing but good things to say. Have you guys seen, separately but related to wheels, there's like a community out there that builds their own wheels with like 3d printing and um circuit boards.

Jeff:

Uh, it's kind of chirping at at me, it's chirping at me to get into it.

Jason:

You know soldering I don't have a 3d printer, so carny engineering yeah which is I highly recommend because I ordered parts list.

Jeff:

You buy all the parts. A little soldering, a little 3d printing. I just ordered one of their parts and I got the sticker.

Jason:

It's the SecureCon box. Did you guys watch the video I sent you guys? You know what this is some blooper after podcast chat that we're going on.

Erick:

We're going off track. You did.

Jason:

I watched the video and I was like man SimMagic keep catching strays in Jason's videos man magic keep catching strays in jason's videos man, another sim magic product that I took off the rig. But nothing against them, nothing against them at all at all. I have a wheel. It's embarrassing. I have a 300 wheel. That's a gt wheel works, and I had a 1500 wheel that did not work. So convince me please when this thing comes back, come. I need a lot of convincing, I need a lot of love, I need a lot of you know I need a hug, you know what I'm saying so I need a hug.

Jason:

So anyway, it's that time of the week. It is track of the week and I am here to have the honor and pleasure I can't remember the gentleman's name, can somebody help me out with that who requested the Alton Park. So thank you so much for that suggestion on our last episode and we, as promised, honored the request and you were the first one Whoever you are, you know who you are, so we're going to get this going right away. I'm going to share my screen once again. Let's do this.

Jeff:

Where are you? I got a Scorpion 2.

Jason:

Scorpion 2. Where's Scorpion 1? We need to find one first. But Scorpion 2, thank you so much for that suggestion. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know and you're about to learn. If you don't know everybody, stay tuned here. So we're going to get into this right quick.

Jeff:

Lay some knowledge on this buddy.

Jason:

Yeah, man, let's do it. So here it is Alton Park. That's a little, let me just adjust that. There it is, okay, alton Park. Let me get my notes on this, this, and I will get that going right away. So very exciting. So here's the take on this track, guys. It says.

Jason:

Located near the village of Little Budworth, just outside Tarporley in Cheshire, alton Park can trace its history back to the manor house which once stood in the grounds. Alton Hall was the ancestral home of the Ergerton family, local landowners from nearly 500 years who were made lords of the manor by Henry VII. When the original hall was destroyed by a fire in 1715, guys, 1715, a grand new replacement was constructed with formal parkland laid around it shortly afterwards, right. So over the years, building work and improvements were made and the house contained a fine art collection. Then, on Valentine's Day in 1926, a terrible this is bad luck, bro A terrible fire broke out which completely destroyed the house. Six people died when the roof collapsed and the building burned for several days. Damn, they didn't have fire trucks, I guess that could reach them. So severe was the blaze that it became the first fire in England to require the services of more than one brigade to extinguish it. Wow, so they had to send a whole armada to get this fire under control.

Jason:

Armada of course, uh, general patton set up camp there and, in the run up to uh, normandy landings and the heavyweight champion of the world, joe lewis, who was by then a private in the us army, look at, look at the history on this track, guys dude, even patton was a racer.

Jason:

Huh, dude so it gave demonstration bouts in the valley at deer leap to uh to boost the soldiers' morale. So what remained of the old hall was bombed out of existence by the Germans and war's end and it pretty got tore up, guys. That's basically what it's saying here. The land was returned to the Urquhart family. By then it was covered with rubble huts and 12 foot roadway, and the last of which would provide the catalyst for the racing circuit. So Alton Park Circuit is a historic and iconic motorsport venue.

Jason:

It was built in 1953 on the Gray-Ergerton family estate which we just went over their history. It was developed by the Midchester Car Club to address a lack of racing circuits in northwest England. The track quickly gained popularity with its challenging natural layout of undulating terrain so basically messed up terrain from over the years and sweeping curves. Its inaugural event, um, in 1953, featured a formula 2 race won by tony roth. In 2004, motorsport vision acquired alton park, leading to extension uh, excuse me extensive renovations and modern upgrades.

Jason:

Today the 2.8 mile circuit hosts a wide variety of events, including the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbike Championship, maintaining its status as a premier destination for motorsport fans and drivers. So it's had a few changes, guys, in 1954, the track was was. Just a year later after it was built, it was extended to 2.23 miles and in 1955, it was further expansion, but the length up to 2.761 miles, and the current circuit now sits at 2.8 miles or 4.5 kilometers. And the current circuit now sits at 2.8 miles or 4.5 kilometers. Again, we went over that. It was once the grounds of a Grand Hall and even a military base during World War II, so there's a lot of history there. Alton Park is known for its natural, basically uneven terrain, sweeping curves and challenging elevation changes, making it a favorite amongst drivers Well, you guys already know that they race super bikes there and a plethora of British touring events.

Jeff:

Let me see, I think it's so cool to hear how World War II had such an impact on these tracks in Europe and vice versa. Right, how the tracks impacted the war. Right, they had a whole patent bed down troops there at this track. I mean, it's just like living history.

Jason:

Yeah, man, it's crazy. So if we're looking at the track, you guys see the direction right. You see this corner right here, old Hull Corner. So that was named after Alton Hall, which originally stood to the rear of where the circuit's first turn is now located. It was destroyed by fire but an original stable block and the enclosed kitchen garden still stand beyond the perimeter of the circuit. And then, if we continue over down to the lodge which is back here, the lodge was named after the gatehouse and lodge which still stands to this day as one of the new reminders of the main hall hall often used by photographers as a backdrop.

Jason:

So they'll use this kind of like, you know some track yeah that makes sense so full, uh, fulston's, britain's chicane. So if we find that on the map again, where are you fulston's right here? Fulston'sane named after two men involved at different times in the ownership of Alton John Fulston, who bought the Grovewood circuits in 1986, only to be killed testing an IndyCar at Silverstone the following year. And John Britton, one of the partners of Motorsport Vision, which they're the current owners since 2004, who died following a battle with cancer in 2009. So a lot of stuff with this track. So I'm going to cover two more turns here or two more parts of the track. So Hilltop, um or not, not Hilltop, let me see here. I'm pretty sure it's Hilltop, named after the Superbike champion. It should be Hillslop, who died in a helicopter crash a short time before Alton's British Superbike round in 2003. Hillslop, the reigning champion, has been expected to make his return to the series at Alton, which he had always considered his favorite track. She came before Nickerbrook, if I'm saying that right, nickerbrook, where's Nickerbrook at?

Jeff:

At the top.

Jason:

Right here Nickerbrook was named in his memory in a special ceremony which saw his 2002 teammate, stuart Easton, ride his slop 1992, mance TT winning Norton through a ribbon to open a new corner. Wow, it's crazy, bro. So on one final corner here, which is the same, shortly before the circuit was created, blaster Bates, a local explosive and demolition expert, was called in to remove three beech trees near to the area where the corner sits. After the third explosion Dude, don't cut them down, just blow them up, freaking. Blow them up, dude. After the third explosion, a couple were seen fleeing. Uh, in some they were fleeing the scene like scared. Close inspection found a pair of ladies underwear floating in the brook. Oh my god, okay, sensors on stuck for a name.

Jason:

Uh, it's stuck for a name for the corner circuit organizers, sub. Uh. Subsequently heard of the tale, so nick or brooke was born that's why they call it they did there oh my god bro that's a cool story, yeah man, so here's the history. Yeah, so you can see, you know the different layouts and and how things changed.

Jeff:

I guess I should have you know. What's interesting talking about these tracks is, jason. Look at the green picture and look what's in the middle of the track.

Jason:

Yeah, bro.

Jeff:

Another go-kart track.

Erick:

I think we've done.

Jeff:

This is our fourth one, and three of them had some type of go-kart track.

Jason:

Actually, jeff, it says here and I got to look into this but it says rally stages. Is that a straight-up rally in there? That'd be a small-ass rally. But, dude, look, listen to how this goes down. You can go to the track, probably get some food outside and then go fishing, right?

Jeff:

here on the lake.

Jason:

Catch some fresh water right here on the lake. Got some fresh water. Fresh water, excuse me, little bass or something. Hell yeah, perch some sea bass, you know. But yeah, that's Halton Park. I'm going to share up another, another view on it real quick, just to give you guys a little more perspective. Let me just share that right here, right now. And where are you?

Jeff:

See here. That's a good flowing track. It's fun.

Jason:

Oh, yeah, and now we get to appreciate it more because we know what these corners mean. And now we get to appreciate it more because we know what these corners mean, we know. Yeah, so that's Alton Park. Just wanted to give you a track overview and some of the history behind the track and why these corners were named after a couple they found there. Why are you exploding trees? First of all, scaring off people.

Jeff:

I never. That's way better idea than cutting them down. I mean why?

Jason:

cut them down. When you can blow the shit out of them, how expensive do you think would be the free? Well, yeah, it's fun too.

Jeff:

We sim race. So we worried about if that was the case we'd be trying, you know, playing, you know, I don't know, need for Speed or something they're like yeah, we're gonna blow it up and we need you to provide we're gonna get rid of these trees. Call Mikey, and bring the TNT over.

Erick:

Call Mikey bring the TNT, mikey.

Jason:

No, no, mikey oh, that's the funniest thing I heard in a while. I know right, yeah, speaking total. Anyways, guys, that's going to be it for today's episode. What a great episode today. Any roundtables before we close this one? I don't have any.

Jeff:

No, just as the holidays are coming around, guys just want to tell everybody happy holidays. Enjoy some time with the family, absolutely Yep.

Jason:

Don't forget to make time with the family. Absolutely, yep. Don't forget to make time for the family, dude.

Erick:

Yep Family time driving time Got to have balance.

Jason:

I'm trying to work on that myself and guys. There's been a bit of news cooking up so I will let you know in the next episode what's coming up next. So please strap in, strap in, subscribe like comment and send us an email at the chicane podcast at gmailcom. I need this weekly, please just kidding um track of the week. Let us know if, if you beat us to it, if you beat us to the request, then we will honor that request. If not, then we will select the next track, which will be Eric, I think, as is up next.

Jeff:

I think it's me.

Jason:

We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. I don't think it All right. It is Jeff huh, Whatever.

Erick:

There will be a track of the week.

Jason:

There will be a track, jeff. I guess you got it, bro, I'll do it. We got it, that's it, yeah. And anyway, it's a lot of fun learning, because now I'm going to go on track and I'm going to start looking for these things that I just spoke about, which is kind of cool, right so to see how accurate the Sims are. There was a tree there, but somebody blew the shit out of it. Yeah, that's where they caught those people naked around this hill, and then I'm looking for it and I crashed because I'm looking for something. There you go. All right, gentlemen, thank you so much for being here again today. Appreciate the time allotted and, to all you listeners and viewers out there, have a great start of your week. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

Co-host
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Jeff Smart

Co-host