Story by Jim Hemig. Images by Doug Atkinson.
Foreword
We wanted to share this sim racing experience the highlight Porsche Club of America’s Sim Racing program. It is one of many exciting opportunities offered to members. The PCA often organizes various events, meets, and group challenges, making it an ideal community for Porsche owners and enthusiasts.
With a PCA membership of only $56 per year, you gain access to activities such as:
- Regional and national events
- Car shows
- Driving tours
- Autocross
- High-performance driver education
- Club racing, sim racing, online activities, and more.
The club provides numerous chances to connect and have cool experiences with like-minded individuals. Every membership includes the Porsche Panorama magazine, access to PCA.org with The Mart, exclusive bi-annual members-only raffles, discounts on parts, and a free PCA logo window decal.
If you’re interested in connecting with like-minded individuals, consider joining Porsche Club of America on their website here.
The Race
“Oh no!” I thought as I missed my braking point before the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Squinting to see out of the 963’s small windshield through the night fog at 200 miles per hour is not easy. This Porsche prototype is a rocket ship, and everything flies by too fast. “My first lap at night could be my last,” I worried about letting my team down.
Shaking with nerves, I feared I just ruined our Le Mans 24-hour effort. Then our race engineer, Steve McLendon, in his calm voice, said in my ear: “Take a breath, collect yourself, remember the tires are cold, and look for the braking points.”
Steve has a way of making everything feel okay. Slowing late for the chicane, I was luckily able to sneak through the bypass road without crashing — just losing time. From that point, I knew this was going to be a serious, long, and wild ride.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start a little further back.
As a serious Porsche motorsport junkie, when PCA Sim Racing announced a 24-hour race at the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, the PCA24, I thought, “I have to do this.” How many Porsche enthusiasts can claim to compete in the 24 hours of Le Mans? But as a novice sim racer, I figured it would be over my head.
PCA Sim Racing National Chair Doug Atkinson had extended the offer to drive while we were at Porsche Parade in Birmingham last month, and he refused to take no for an answer. “We’ll find you a team,” he proclaimed.
With a week before the 24-hour endurance race, Pro Class PCA Sim Racer Bob Rose (Musik Stadt Region) texted me: “Would LOVE to race together, again.” Bob, a sim racer since the 1990s, and I did a short team race at Sebring. We were both in our rookie year of PCA Sim Racing. He has since improved and advanced to the Pro Class. Me? Still in the novice Challenge Class.
Bob recruited fellow PCA Sim Racer Jake Steinbrink (Ohio Valley Region) from the Club Class and endurance sim racing hot shoe Steve McLendon to form team Ronin Racing, dusting off the ol’ Sebring name and livery. Jake, an early adopter, started in PCA Sim Racing’s second year, and Steve, from Temple, Georgia, has been sim racing for close to 25 years. So, these guys are good. My job was to drive as fast as I could, without crashing, for hours and hours, through day and night, and — with my slow lap time differential — try not to be too much of a boat anchor.
The day of the race, the realization sank in that PCA has never held a 24-hour race of any kind, be it on track or in sim. To meet this first-ever challenge, over 30 entries with three- and four-driver teams drove either Porsche’s 963 prototype, 911 RSR (the mid-engined one), or 911 GT3 R. To match the historic importance, the entire race was live-streamed, with race-start commentary from legendary announcer John Hindhaugh, the voice of Le Mans.
PCA Sim Racing started in 2019 with only a couple dozen racers competing at iRacing’s Laguna Seca. Now, just five years later, the result is the largest car club sim racing program in the world with almost 1,000 registered PCA members. But until now, the longest race was a mere six hours. This 24 is the culmination of countless volunteer hours from the PCA Sim Racing steering committee and member driver participation.
Bob Rose qualified our 963 P11 and started the race at noon Eastern time. Watching all these Porsche race cars on the parade lap for this history-making race was special for me personally.
At the green flag, we were off and racing. Quickly, a couple of the prototypes tangled ahead on the first lap, elevating us to 7th position overall. Bob did a great job over the first two 45-minute stints. An hour and a half of driving might not seem like much, but for me, driving at the limit for that amount of time is a challenge in maintaining concentration.
Bob pitted and Steve’s detailed spreadsheet showed I was up next. We filled up the 963 tank and took four new tires. I jumped in, did my best to get situated, turned on my pit-lane speed limiter and, with all the nervous energy of a first-time Le Mans 24 racer, took off and immediately got hit with a pit lane speed violation! “No!” I shouted out loud. With the black flag showing on my dashboard, I was hit with a stop and 15-second hold on the next lap.
Not the best way to start a race or calm one’s nerves. After serving the penalty, I was now at the back of the pack, working my way through the slower RSRs and GT3 Rs that were entrenched in a race for the class win. Trying my best to settle in and just drive safely, I ended up with two good stints with no more pit-lane speed violations and no car damage. It was a good hour and a half.
Jake Steinbrink was up next and, after, Bob again. Both were driving great double-stints into the evening and night. Even though this is simulated racing, race director Doug Atkinson likes to throw real-world challenges at us. And the evening fog was just that challenge. That’s when I was back in, driving at night with very low visibility.
After that first night lap “detour” around the chicane, I felt like I got into a good groove and finished my second double-stint without incident. Steve McLendon jumped in after fuel and tires and went on to do five stints in a row, giving us all some rest overnight. Five 45-minute stints! That was three hours and forty-five minutes!
After Bob took another turn, I was back up. Even though I’m far slower than these guys, confidence was building after four stints. I was actually looking forward to driving another double at night. Back behind the wheel, my nightmare scenario happened: A faster prototype tried to thread the needle in dense morning fog between me and a slower GT3 R I was passing. He tapped the left rear of my 963, causing me to spin into the wall, across the track, and into the opposite guard rail. Shaking again, Bob called over my comms that we’d need a tow back to the pits.
A slow tow and repairs cost us about 10 minutes, and all of my confidence. With Bob, Jake, and Steve’s efforts, we moved from 14th position, where I put us after the pit lane penalty, back up to P9. This “kerfuffle,” as Steve called it, moved us back to P11. After repairs, I went back out to finish my remaining stint, which included my finest race moment, making a track pass for position.
Steve’s ever-calming demeanor helped me tremendously. “Hearing the excitement in your voice throughout the race, even throughall of our adversity, kept the excitement and energy up. It was really refreshing over such a grueling race,” Steve encouragingly said.
I know some folks roll their eyes at sim racing, but I’ll tell you: This is serious stuff. I am not surprised all the professional racing teams spend hours in simulators. The level of detail to prepare for a race like this, the strategy and planning that goes into stint timing, fuel, tires, the pre-race driving practice, the racing through slower traffic, weather, and day and night, makes this entire experience the closest I will ever get to racing for 24 hours at Le Mans.
By Sunday morning, with hours still to go, we were all very tired. But this was the best part. We were all in the comfort of our own homes, talking on headphones with mics, swapping stories, and getting a little silly on low sleep.
“For me these races are definitely about the teamwork and camaraderie as much as, or maybe more than, the finishing result,” Jake shared, “Everyone doing their part and not wanting to let down the team.”
The team pulled together after my lengthy pit repairs, taking turns at the wheel until the checkered flag. Our Porsche 963 had bumps and bruises, but we finished on track with Bob crossing the finish line in 11th place overall, right where we started.
That was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. It was a great result for a team that formed a week before the race. We didn’t win, but we also weren’t last in our class. We had some near-misses and a few other minor incidents, but our 963 made it to the finish line … and I made new friends along the way.
If you are a Porsche racing fan like me, I encourage you to add a Le Mans 24-hour sim race to your bucket list. You will be challenged. You will be tired. But at the checkered flag, you will be proud beyond words.
Bob summed up the effort best: “My favorite memory was the finish. No joke, getting to the end with people I enjoyed driving with and knowing that we got to experience something together that we’d never get to do in real life. Priceless.”
