A great thank you goes out to Turn 10 for making it possible for me to ride in an IndyCar today! I had the pleasure of attending the 40th Grand Prix of Long Beach just one day after downloading the famous track in Forza Motorsport 5! I played it non-stop yesterday in preparation for today’s activity. Let me get this out of the way right now - I did NOT drive the IndyCar unfortunately. I was riding tandem in an IndyCar built for two, similar to the one that Dan G arrived in at the Forza 5 debut party. What. A. Blast!
After getting all suited up I, along with other riders walked down to pit lane and got our racing socks, helmets and gloves and waited patiently for launch! This should be a video if you click the image.
As my driver and I were flying around the track, I found myself looking at all the details of the environment: The buildings, the brake markers, the signage, the tire walls, the black scuff marks on the curbing… I couldn’t help but appreciate how much Turn 10 absolutely NAILED it! It felt like I was in the game. The same feeling came over me when I was driving at Laguna Seca during Skip Barber’s racing school several years ago.
The only things that Turn 10 could not replicate, of course, were the G-Forces. The grip that is felt when cornering at those speeds and the absolute brutality of the pressure under braking is amazingly exhilarating. I whooped and hollered for much of the lap, and clapped as we headed back into pit lane. It was an amazing experience!
As I changed out of my racing livery, I had the pleasure of meeting racing legend Mario Andretti, which was completely unexpected! Back down on pit lane, just before the drivers got some practice laps in, I was lucky enough to meet and speak briefly with friend of Turn 10, Josef Newgarden! I also got Will Power to smile for the camera. All great guys!
I apologize for all the random sizes of the pictures. That’s due to my cropping of various pics. Also, I’m sure you can understand why there’s no video while actually inside of the IndyCar. I would’ve lost the my phone for sure!
Today was amazing, and I give a million thanks to Fred and Brian at Turn 10 for making it happen!
