NASCAR 2003 Daytona 500 Test Session

I am trying to slowly wean myself off of my custom built Windows XP gaming rig by moving those titles that I still want to play onto my Windows 7 system. It is a slow and painful process as the XP machine was the first computer I built with my own hands from scratch back in April 2007. The rig booted right up after installation of the operating system and I ran it without a reinstall for over four years.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season is the last great NASCAR racing simulator made. Period.  It is such the Holy Grail of stock car simulations that copies still go on eBay for well over $200, and that is long after the Papyrus/Sierra multiplayer racing lobbies were closed down. It has been previously covered here on this blog when I was running a championship exactly two years ago this month.

Madden 08 Berlin Thunder Season 1

Today I started a new league franchise in Madden 08, the last official NFL game to see the light of day on PC, thanks to the unholy alliance between the NFL and EA Sports. I have owned and played the console games and they suck in comparison to what can be accomplished on a PC platform. It has been over 6 ½ years since PC gamers have been given a new game since the release of Madden 08 on 8/14/2007.

This effort will utilize the OzWolf’s Madden Tools & Utilities application to mod a game roster into creating a new league. While I have spent untold hours over the years creating my own custom teams to bring into the league, this time I am just going to replace several NFL disappointments with NFL Europe Teams, which will be based out of Los Angeles, CA for reporting purposes but play in their overseas venues.

Ring Knutstorp

Kågeröd, Sweden: Round two of the nine event Swedish Touring Car Championship got underway with the Hartmann Honda Racing Accord R qualifying in fifth position on the grid with a time of 01:07.234.

The first race was an enjoyable event with some close racing through the initial sequence of turns, resulting in the Work Zone Honda leaping into first place on lap two and never relinquishing it. The 110lb penalty ballast for winning the first round did not seem to affect me too much as I finished the first race with a time of 0:05:43.316 and 10 Championship Points.

FDM Jyllands-Ringen

Resenbro, Denmark: Round one of the nine event Swedish Touring Car Championship got underway with the Hartmann Honda Racing Accord R qualifying in fourth position on the grid with a time of 01:18.481. This being the first event of the Championship, all racers were on relatively equal footing in terms of car weight as there was no penalty ballast assigned to any driver.

The first race featured some tight moments on the opening lap as I was able to put the Work Zone Honda into P1 with a sprint down the front stretch after out braking P3 & P2 in turns 11 and 16 respectively. After that it was clear sailing to the finish for the victory with a time of 0:06:34.240 and 10 Championship Points.

Monza Test Day

Monza, Italy: Today was a shakeout test day at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza track using a Gen 5 Chevrolet Camaro from the Race07 expansion pack STCC II. Monza has always been one of my favorite circuits for any series (realistic or not) because there are several challenging chicanes and long stretches that toss the driver back and forth from action to boredom.

In a full length race the track demands maximum concentration from the racer: Any lapse in focus can result in the vehicle sitting in a pile of gravel while their dreams of trophy and drink flash by as they become the back marker and but a distant memory. Several times I have taken the lead in a variety of series with three or more laps to go and began pulling away just to have those long stretches lull me into a sense of comfort...only to my untimely demise.

Martinsville Speedway

Ridgeway, Virginia: The Goody’s Pain Relief 500 was run at Martinsville Speedway in Henry County, Virginia. The 0.526 mile oval is paved with a mix of asphalt and concrete, and is banked 12° in the turns and is relatively flat on the straights.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 125 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 47 laps under green flag conditions. This would result in approximately 2.65 pit stops during the event, more with the inevitable yellow flags.

Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol, Tennessee: The Food City 500 was run at Bristol Motor Speedway in Sullivan County, Tennessee. The 0.533 oval is paved with concrete and is banked at 26°-30° in the turns and 6°-10° in the straights. Although I would largely solve my controller issues from the race before, the result was the same.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 125 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 47 laps under green flag conditions (yeah, right). This would result in approximately 2.65 pit stops during the event.

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Hampton, Georgia: The Kobalt Tools 500 was run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Henry County, Georgia. The 1.54 mile quad-oval is paved with asphalt and is banked at 24° in the turns and 5° in the straights. This would be a horrible track for me to begin to experience controller issues on.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is an 82 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 17 laps under green flag conditions. This would result in approximately 4.82 pit stops during the event.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada: The Shelby 427 was run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Clark County, Nevada. The 1.5 mile tri-oval superspeedway is paved with asphalt, has four turns banked at 20 degrees (however this change occurred in 2007, and I believe the game is modeled at the then 12 degrees).

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 67 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 17 laps under green flag racing conditions. This would result in approximately 3.94 pit stops during the event.

California

Fontana, California: The Auto Club 500 was run at the 2 mile D-shaped oval which is paved with asphalt, has four turns banked at 14 degrees, a front stretch banked at 11 degrees and a back stretch that is relatively flat at 3 degrees. The circuit is smooth and wide and a pleasure to race on if you have a setup that will allow you to move between multiple racing lines.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 63 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 13 laps under green flag racing conditions. This would result in an approximately 4.85 pit stops during the event.

Daytona

Daytona, Florida: On 12/6 I had started a new NASCAR Racing 2003 Season Championship using The BullRing 2011 Sprint Cup modification at 95% AI strength and Adaptive Speed Control (ASC) set. I finished second in that race having been passed by Bill Elliot in the trial oval when I thought I had the race won.

During the event I had some concerns about how ASC was working. There were some times where I would pass whole lines of cars without the draft (a bad sign at a restrictor plate track) just to be passed by them later, in what seemed as if the game was adjusting to my driving ability.

Norisring Racing Series, Event Eight

Nuremberg, Germany: Having wrapped up the Championship mathematically in the previous event, I had nothing on the line going into the final races of the series. Although I had 44lbs more penalty ballast than any other racer, I had an insurmountable lead of 30 points.

For the first time in this eight event series consisting of a total of sixteen races, there was wet weather to be had which had a discernible effect on the handling of the vehicles. My qualifying time (always dead last) would suffer as a result, posting a time of 0:49.512, 00:02.036 off of the pole sitter.

Norisring Racing Series, Event Seven

Nuremberg, Germany: This event started with my having a 176lb weight penalty and a 21 point lead in the Championship. With an unlikely win in the first race after starting last and a podium finish of third place in the second, I secured the Championship with an insurmountable lead of 30 points with only one event remaining.

Qualifying was another abysmal failure with a time of 0:49.103, 00:01.689 off of the pole sitter Tor Graves (and one of my worst qualifying attempts of the series). Yet again the qualifying session turned out to be nothing more than a brisk warm up for the first race of the event.

Norisring Racing Series, Event Six

Nuremberg, Germany: This event started with my having a 176lb weight penalty to contend with and a 17 point lead in the Championship. With a strong finish in the first race and surprising win in the second, I would extend my lead over second place by 21 points.

Qualifying was another washout with a time of 0:48.579, 00:01.139 off of the pole sitter Jean De Pourtales. Although these times were an improvement of some half second or more over the previous week albeit I was carrying 35lbs more penalty ballast, it was still disappointing.

Norisring Racing Series, Event Five

Nuremberg, Germany: I entered event five of the series with a 141lb weight penalty and first place in the Championship. I would leave the track having expanded my lead in the series with solid performances in both races, bringing home the event win with a second place finish in race two.

My qualifying time was dead last again at 0:48.918, 00:01.768 off the pole sitter Timo Lienemann. This result was in line with all other qualifying sessions of this series given the Logitech dual-action gamepad and driving aids used to compensate for my racing wheel not working with this game.