Student Experiences: Lewis Edwards – Part 2

I really enjoyed the competition but despite what the results may suggest, it was tough. Each race had its own unique challenges. However, getting the win in every race was awesome! We started the season at Oulton Park. I picked the Mercedes which was about 8 tenths per lap slower than the Lamborghini as driven by Harry Tiller. Also, I’d not done anywhere near enough practice only doing 85 laps (or 4 hours and 25 minutes), so I was on the back foot. Harry took pole but I managed to get within 4 tenths of him. The first stint was uneventful with me fuel saving behind Harry, unable to find a way through. When we approached a group of lapped traffic, Harry dived for the pits to make his stop. Before I’d even arrived at turn 1, I was convinced I had made the wrong call given the traffic ahead of me and his pace advantage. The ‘red mist’ descended, and I knew I had to push hard and go for a big overcut to cycle out in the lead. I managed 2 or 3 flying laps longer before the tank was dry. To my surprise, I exited the pitlane in front of Harry who’d been delayed on the pit entry. From there, I managed the race to secure a hard-fought and lucky win.

Round 2 at Okayama presented two main challenges: the rear tyres would overheat on any car within 3 laps and getting the flow right through the tricky second sector. In practice for the race, I began experimenting with the iRacing AI but didn’t quite nail it for a realistic grid. I managed to do more practice completing 219 laps or 11 hours and 25 minutes. My efforts paid off as I qualified on pole by 0.4 seconds and controlled the start well. It was then a case of building the gap slowly and keeping the tyre temps down which I managed to do. I opted not to change tyres at the pitstop to reduce my time on pitlane, but Harry did, so I had to manage the gap which was 19 seconds at the finish line.

For Round 3 at Suzuka I perfected AI racing and did a full race simulation every day in the 2 or so weeks leading up to the event. Suzuka is a track all about flow and momentum so balancing that with fuel and tyre saving was a challenge for this race. I completed a total of 272 laps (or 17 hours and 13 minutes) practice for this round. I’d also put more time into setup work and qualifying practice too which was rewarded with a pole lap that was more than a second clear of the field. In the race I was managing the pace vs saving fuel and tyres whilst pushing hard on lap 2 to secure the fastest lap. At the end of the first stint, I had a healthy advantage and didn’t have to worry about tyre strategy so took a new set and won the race by 31 seconds.

Round 4 took us to Le Mans, my favourite circuit… in the world! This race was a longer one at 2 hours and 25 minutes, featuring a full day night cycle and it was worth double points. The key challenges of Le Mans are maximising fuel saving without sacrificing too much lap time and avoiding off tracks and slowdowns. Practice was a little trickier as the AI’s pace during the night was disproportionately better than their pace in the day with them surpassing esports drivers at night but being 2 seconds off my pace in the day. Nevertheless, I still managed to put in 225 laps (or 28 hours and 6 minutes) of practice for this one.

I felt confident going into the race and managed to put it on pole by 2.9 seconds! From my perspective the race was uneventful. I knew it would be a simple 2 stop strategy, taking maximum fuel and tyres at the first stop and taking Kapps’ (an overlay which has a fuel calculator) suggested fuel amount and tyres at the second stop. That’s exactly what I did. The only minor blip was getting one slow down penalty for going off the track to avoid an unpredictable backmarker. I won the race by 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

It was off to Laguna Seca and back to the regular format for Round 5. I struggled during practice to get the car feeling right and consistent. Having messed around with setup and force feedback settings I eventually found a balance I could work with. I did plenty of practice and AI race simulations in preparation, racking up 754 laps (or 35 hours and 58 minutes). Thankfully, all the practice did result in a good balance which I managed to stay consistent with. I took pole by 9 tenths and led the race from start to finish, winning by 46 seconds.

The penultimate round took us to Spa. From the first lap of practice, I felt very confident having won the iRacing Spa 24 hours in 2022 and nearly going back-to-back with a P2 in last year’s edition. I did 436 laps (or 26 hours and 43 minutes) in preparation for the race. This round was as close to a perfect performance as I could have achieved. Even after 26 hours of practice, I set my personal best lap time on my first lap in qualifying in the same conditions, securing pole by over a second. In the race it was possible but very difficult to set a 2:16 lap time on the second lap of the race and on the second lap out of the pits after a pitstop. I managed to hit the time on both laps, led every lap, got 0 incident points and took the chequered flag with a lead of a full minute.

The final round of the season took place on the Nürburgring GP layout, with avoiding off tracks in the first sector and nailing the line over the final chicane being particular challenges. Although I had won the championship by simply turning up to claim the 50 bonus points for attending each race, I could probably have been forgiven for doing no practice or picking a random car for fun, but I wanted to close out the season with another statement performance to complete the clean sweep of the season. I still did 496 laps (or 28 hours and 27 minutes) of practice.

I had been scheduled to be on the broadcast chatting with Ed and Wayne but sadly Ed’s PC decided it didn’t want to work anymore which meant no broadcast. After doing all my practice race simulations with my girlfriend asking practice questions throughout, the round seemed quiet! I managed to take pole by 2 seconds, lead every lap, take fastest lap and win the race by over a minute. Blasting out Queen’s “We Are the Champions” whilst doing burnouts on the cooldown lap was an unforgettable moment. That’s when it hit me that I really had won the championship.

All those hours (152 in total) of practice had paid off. Almost every single sim racing prize I have won has come from a single race or lap time so to win a championship while driving better than I have before across 7 different rounds is special.