Drive Along in a Virtual Lap of Daytona with Patrick Long

Patrick Long, the man Matt Farah dubbed “The World’s Fastest Ginger,” raced the 24 Hours of Daytona in Wright Motorsports’ 911 GT3 R. In the real race, Long was joined by Christina Nielsen, Robert Jenauer and Porsche Junior driver Mathieu Jaminet. Here, he is alone in a simulator. We expected the Wright Motorsports car to give a strong performance at Daytona and these virtual laps of the track in CXC Simulations’ simulator gave us some insight into how that should have happened. Long’s deep understanding of the track helps to deconstruct just how to get the most out of a lap.

Teammate Christina Nielsen has entered the race four times, and both Jenauer and Jaminet made their first appearances at the event. Long has entered the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona 13 times in his career, and won his class in 2009. While driving Long talks through the difficulties of the track, beginning with the pit wall (somewhat fore shadowing what was to actually happen during the race), through the banking and the bus stop, which he calls the most technically demanding section of the course. Of course, we already know that Long is an excellent teacher.

The simulation setup Long is using is a very impressive piece of kit. Suddenly my XBox One and living room surround sound look wholly inadequate for racing games and simulators. The Motion Pro II simulator rig in the video uses multiple vibration simulators and seatbelt tensioners to replicate the sensations of driving a racecar. The kit shown costs around $59k, or roughly seven Project 944 GTSs. Despite the cost, the setup is clearly an extremely valuable tool to help a top-level driver learn courses.