October 27, 2023 • 47 mins
For the latest iRacing Downshift, we bring in our new Marketing and Communications Specialist, Justin Melillo, to talk about his background in the sim racing space and coverage of our top esports events. We’ve got plenty of updates on our most recent Special Events, a look at all of our pro series going down, and Chris continues pursuing his vendetta against those who can’t keep the racing to the racetrack.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
This week on the I Racing DownShift, Greg's self reports, we continue
to be bad at our job,but it's okay. Kevin gets penalized worked
on a team where we got penalizedfor that because we didn't change the board
on anything. And Chris reveals hisnew spotter we call like Sasquatch out of
the woods and we have him,you know, in the hairpin, Like
(00:23):
yeah all that more so strap inwelcome to that Racing downship. I'm me
he hou's Greg West, I'm backof the boys, Kevin bobb It and
Chris Leoni. Hey, we didit. It's like only been six weeks.
We've got another podcast. We havedone pretty good for twenty twenty three
some statvoid. Does any even knowhow many episodes we did this year?
(00:44):
Anybody top of their head? Wedidn't talk about this in pre production,
but I'm just so immediately we offscript off like you are welcome, audible
at the line, Yeah, you'rewelcome for that. There is no point
in having an outline. We continueto be bad at our jobs, but
it's okay. It's another episode ofthe iRacing down Shift. What have we
been up to? Chris, I'mthrowing this to you because Twitter or x
(01:07):
or whatever it's called. This weekyou have been a troll, an absolute
troll, and I've loved every momentof it. Well, thank you,
Greg, I have. I havebeen cranking the new Blink one eighty two
album, and I have been goingto war with race car drivers about the
fact that they don't own the racetrack. Actually, Parker does own the racetrack,
just he He has phrased it asI own a blade of grass somewhere
(01:30):
at Limerock Park. It's more thanI Sorry, does that mean? Does
that mean I support Parker because Ihave the shirt? Yes, I mean,
I'm on. I bet he probablyhe probably got seven or eight cents
out of that, maybe not thatmuch. Not about that's more than I
(01:51):
made when I used to do Tshirts back in the day. But no
trek limits, friends. They existfor a reason. They exist for safety
reasons, and they exist so drivershave to actually show some skills and not
just UH if I fits, Isits with anything. Sorry, you're strong
opinions, right, So that's good, not at all, no note at
(02:13):
all. What do you think ofskid plates? Uh? As somebody who
never did the uh never really didthe engineering side on cars. My opinion
is the rule book exists for areason. Operate within the freaking rule book.
If you can't do that, that'sa you thing. Chris is fired
up. I've actually worked on ateam where we got penalized for that because
(02:35):
we didn't change the board underneath.And it happens that it was not Lewis
Hamilton's team, by the way,just just to clarify, I was not
a crew member for that team,a slightly lower level team, but same
issue. And you know, yougot to you gotta pay attention. Was
that a most part? Where wasit it was at? I don't remember
(02:57):
what track it was. I don'tthink it was most poor, Maybe it
was I it was. I thinkit was most sporgs. We talked about
it because people talk about floor damageon I race. Maybe it was,
yeah, And I'm like, ah, I mean, I mean Canadian Entire
Motorports, Canadian Entire Motorsport Park,Yes, that one. But the floor
damage at that track, that isa feature, not a bug. That's
realism. Yes, yes, wellit probably was there, but yeah,
(03:21):
yeah, it's the thing. Soanyway, Yeah, it's I don't know,
I get it. People are competitiveand It's always easier to blame the
rule book than reflect on your ownmistakes. But maybe I should send Parker
a coloring book and some crayons forChristmas so we can practice who But the
time to argue about rules is beforethe season starts. Once the rules are
you've decided to compete, you gotto follow them, whether you like them
(03:42):
or not. You can choose torace or not. But the rules are
the rules. Hey, But theoutcome Logan Sergeant gets just American to score
points in thirty years. Yeah,Logan thirty years. That means the guys
producing this podcast have never seen anAmerican points, right, Cisco. I
(04:02):
don't know how you turned this intoa dig at me, but sure now
that was more of a dig onme because I'm old. You are old.
You are old? That is true. Can confirm what have you been
up to, Kevin? Well?Do you want to see a Taylor Smid
movie tonight? Oh my gosh,Greg's trying to get me to go to
see Taylor Swift. So more onthat in the next podcast. But I've
(04:24):
been enjoying fall because it's my favoriteseason and my soccer team, yes it's
called soccer, is doing pretty well, sit second in the standings on our
way to the playoffs. So veryexcited about that. Six and two not
bad for old man soccer. Howmany promotions would you need to make League
two? I want to see youguys. Okay, So you're saying there's
(04:46):
a chance, there's a chance,there's a chance. There are some guys
in my league that think there's definitelya chance. They are a little bit
try hard, and those are theguys that end up with yellow and red
cards. Off we make fun ofthem. Yeah, but we're having a
good season. We're having fun,still fun to play great. Got a
game this weekend. Pretty excited,very cool. We go off last week.
(05:09):
I thought I beat him. Idid not, coming up. I
just found out a week later thatI did not beat Kevin, although I
played pretty well for myself. SoI'm happy, and then you are.
So that's interesting that I want.I wasn't gonna take a dig on that.
It's a gentleman's game. I trustthat you have kept all those drops,
were counting yourself if you cheating,right, that's right, That's why
(05:31):
I like playing with Kevin. Allright, Well let's get an I racing.
What's been going on in the community. I'm looking at Chris's outline.
Now, I got to give Chriscredit half credit because half of the outline
has appropriate bullets. They're probably maybea link to the photo and a picture
of the outline in the description.Half of the the outline has bullets,
(05:53):
the other half has hyphens. Ithink your computer's messed up because I see
bullets on all of them. Iwill take a screen shot. I'm going
full Parker and I'm disputing the I'mdisputing the what's out there? All right,
We're gonna have to have Doug puta tweet up. And apparently not
much is going on in I Racingif we're just debating bullet we're arguing bullets
and hyphens. Yeah. Well,we do continue to work on on rain.
(06:16):
A lot of a lot of rainhappening on I Racing. So that's
about all we can say for December, isn't it. That's the full update
on that we're working on rain.That's it. We're working on rain.
We're doing well. Next bullet point, please, Hey, I can't talk
about that. Oh yeah, orwhat about that? Yeah, yeah,
we're having communication that allows us todo so so and yeah, that we
(06:41):
can't, can't do it. It'stoo soon. It's only week six,
it's early. Yeah, we needto get Tony on here. He'll just
tell you everything that's true. ChristmasPresent to Iras and we'll bring Tony on
next month. What's happening in twentytwenty four? Yeah, Tony, if
you're listening, what's up? Allright? Special events up? Though?
We had We had a big October. We had Crandon. I know Chris
(07:02):
Hayes the racing, but we hadCrandon. Yeah, and in Cisco you
were involved in Crandon in some capacity, right, Yeah. I ended up
my good friend Keenan Kusen, whois a streamer does a lot of eye
racing. He ended up making thetop twenty. He was the twentieth driver,
and we barely snuck in. Sowhere did you finish up? So
(07:27):
we top ten in the heat andthen I think we got hurt in the
features, so somewhere in the thirteensor so. So, I mean it
was a that game because we camein this car twenty So yeah, did
you fail at your job or didhe fail at the behind the wheel?
Well, we came in privateer,so we had no setup, help,
(07:48):
no nothing, versus every All thepro teams were there, the world champion
was there, so we'll take itthat sounds like a really professional race organization.
Blame or quin. He didn't answerthe question either. Now, look,
I just got to thank all theguys back at the shop. They
gave us fantastic a long career inracing system. I love it. True
(08:13):
or false, your driver would havebeen better off using the default spotter pack
we did. I was supplementary,sir, oh right, good times.
So he had two spotters, hehad the default pack and he had you.
So that's about yeah, three morethan they have in the real world.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.Which if you've ever been around Crandon,
(08:37):
there are absolutely cases where you coulduse like five spotters at one time.
It's crazy out there. Yeah,sometimes we stick we call like Sasquatch
out of the woods and we havehim, you know, in the hairpin,
like yeah, well dude lost,I'm lost. Yeah, hey,
Kevin, let's talk with the SECArunoffs. Run off happened the last year.
(09:01):
Yes, runoffs were great, oneof the coolest broadcasts that I ended
up watching the whole thing. Itried to race specrate, so I didn't
make top split because I think soI had to work all day, sorry
Cisco, Yeah, six hours.It was great. I really enjoyed it.
I sat on the couch and watchedracing and yeah, I really really
enjoyed that. So nice job broadcaston World Esports Stay too. Yeah,
(09:26):
but for those that don't know,we had six races back to back to
back to back whatever, with thecar classes loosely representing what's available in the
SECA. It's not a one toone comparison. I do know there were
some some people that weren't happy thatit wasn't directly one to one, but
for participation reasons, we do thebest we can to emulate what happens,
(09:48):
and I think it was an excellentjob. We saw a lot of new
names in the broadcast and I thinkthat's my one of my favorite parts about
it. Even though we didn't usesuper sessions this year, if you're good
in the car, we probably canmake the broadcast. And so there was.
We had six races. We hadone person did win two events.
I forget the name. Sorry I'mfailure, but just a fun broadcast.
(10:11):
Really enjoyed it all and looking forwardto next year. We should get on
a call and talk about that sometime. Let's do it. Let's see coming
now and October November is pretty busyin a special event land. We've got
the NIS Finale at Phoenix. That'llbe elbows out, lots of fun.
We've got the Fuji eight out now, that's a new one for us.
(10:33):
We were replacing the ten Hours ofSuzuka. So GT three is only at
Fuji and people are already talking aboutsetups. I think that's actually gonna be
a really big event, first timewe've run that one. And then brand
new, newly announced the FF sixteenhundred Festival, which is going to emulate
the Formula Ford Festival over in theUK. Let's put on by Motorsport UK
(10:56):
and b R SCC and a coolformat. We're gonna use a couple of
heats. You're gonna have you know, two heats and then a last chance
qualifier and then the main loosely emulatingwhat they do over multiple days in the
UK. Brands Hatch, that's it. Brands Hatch Indy, Uh, just
gonna be a cool broadcast. Ithink they run something that I would say
(11:18):
similar to like the Chili Bowl.You know, they have all these qualifying
races throughout the week and all that. So we're doing it in sort of
one session to get people involved,but we're trying to make it as similar
and is interesting because it's kind ofa special format. So it should be
a great broadcast, should be coolrace, you know. I think it's
pretty much up into what everybody danabove. Is that yep, everybody dan
(11:39):
above. There's a trivia. Doyou know who won last year's Real World
event and what sponsor was on theside of the car. I'm thinking that
you've set us up to Saint MaxEsterson's name you you are correct, I'm
guessing that it was not Well,I won't guess the sponsor, it was
I Racing, I know no.So Max is the reigning champion, so
(12:03):
really cool to have that to bringthat real world tie. And also,
Kevin, are we're sponsoring the realworld event this year too. Yeah,
we should be all over the realworld broadcasts and whatnot, so that'll be
neat to get some exposure. Youknow, we're always trying to get the
name out there and get I Racingsome new eyeballs. So it's a nice
tie in both to have the virtualversion and then be connected in the real
(12:26):
world version. It kind of comesfull circle, so neat opportunity there.
Very cool work continues on the twentytwenty four special Events calendar. It is
all over my desk right now.That is a fun puzzle to put together.
We're hoping to announce it right dotWest at I racing dot com if
you have suggestions again, which automaticallyforwards to Kevin dot Bob at I racing
(12:46):
dot com if you would like hiscell phone number. Oh gosh, here
we go. I'm not that mean, but yeah, we hope to have
that available publicly the end of Novemberbeginning of December, like we usually do.
Please please don't blow up support theyit's the same questions every year.
It's coming hashtag soon. We promisewe'll have it to you as soon as
(13:09):
we're able to announce it. Chrisprobably guess what the main events will be.
I mean, we're not you know, I bet it's really popular.
They're not going to go away,you know. I mean it's it'll be
similar, So I bet it kicksoff with the roar. I'd go out
and what cars are in the roarmight change, but yeah, roar and
in Daytona twenty four. I'm willingto bet those happen in January in close
(13:31):
proximity to the real world Daytona twentyand then Chris, we've got qualifying away
for NASCAR A College Series and they'reat Dover. Yep, next one coming
to Dover. College Series has beenreally interesting this year with all of the
all the different races. Instead ofrunning the spring and fall semesters separate,
(13:52):
it's turned into a big eight racekind of season and then points being tracked
and then a finale at the veryend. But yeah, this time up
we're at Dover, so qualifying isgoing underway now that runs through Halloween,
so they're switching between the trucks andthe X fin D cars. So definitely
one to circle your calendars depending uponwhich vehicle you're better in, but hopefully
(14:16):
if you're trying out for that one, you're pretty good at both. Absolutely
still in Chris's line, high word, we also have a new piece coming
out on Monday's tweek in I rasing We're trying to do a better job
of saying what's going on this week? You know, is we have so
many special series and high profile series, and Chris and Kevin have done a
(14:39):
nice job along with Justin Malillo,who's going to be our special guest today,
putting that together. Kevin, Chris, you guys want to talk about
that a little bit. That's beenyour guys project. Sure, Chris,
take it away. Fun fact,this is basically how the back end of
this came about because Kevin hitched itas we were in the process. So
(15:01):
I think Greg started this conversation,well, yeah, that's the thing,
and you conveniently left that out andI didn't find that out until I found
it out from Greg on Monday evening. But uh, yeah, we've just
been trying to compile everything that's kindof going on in the service. There
were a lot of things going on. We're always talking internally about how can
we draw more attention to things,how can we do a better job of
(15:22):
getting this information out there. Andif you're paying attention to the UI on
the website, you'll know that there'sa call to action every Monday morning for
all the special events. You'll knowthat we've been really trying to get these
things out there. On stuff likethe college series that we just talked about.
We do a ton of esports coverage, previews and recaps for the big
(15:43):
series, and we're even able toexpand that a little bit with Justin having
come on board, but we wantedto have something that gets all of this
information as best as we can inone place. It's still a bit of
a work in progress. That wasone of the things that the three of
us were kind of talking about aswe were doing the pre show meeting is
we're still massaging it. We're stillfiguring out what goes where, trying to
(16:03):
keep those community events towards the top, but working some things so that if
you're not seeing all those other callto action, or if you're seeing all
those other call to actions and esportscoverage and whatever, you'll know about some
of the other things that are goingon. So, yeah, really cool
initiative. It's it really comes morefrom the other two guys that are the
(16:23):
host of the show than me.I'm just kind of trying to herd the
cats on all the events and giveJustine some direction. Chris is doing the
work, I'm Justin's doing the work. I'm the shop foreman. I'm just
you know, nice written. No, really, what I am is I'm
Harry Hog and Dais of Thunder.I'm sitting in the pit box eating the
(16:44):
ice cream. You can drive throughit. I know it in my heart.
Well, we'll use that as asegue. I'm going to read this
directly off the Islands segued this intointroducing Justin, who has our special guest
today. Justin Little, longtime communitymember, a huge advocate for I Racing
and SIM Racing as a whole.My intro is not nearly as good as
Chris is, and Chris can talkabout all his accolades, including a Simmy,
(17:10):
got a Simmy, He's got NationalMotorsports Press Awards. Justin. Yes,
most of the people who are listeningto this show are probably familiar with
Justin's work in some way, shapeor form. He's run a ton of
different leagues on the service, He'sworked for some other sites in the community
where he's done a lot of IRacing coverage. The opportunity came up to
(17:30):
bring him on board. I wasbasically beating down Kevin's door for months on
this one, saying, please getme some help, Please get me some
help. I think in those exactwords, you've probably seen Justin start working
into our coverage, doing some racerecaps for some of our bigger series over
(17:51):
the course of the season. Butnow we've got him on board full time
and he's serving a lot of differentroles for us. Takes amazing screenshots,
writes, incredible rec caps, justdoes a fantastic job. He's he's a
Swiss Army knife at everything basically thathe can do within the SIM and so
we're thrilled to have him. Yeah, you won't find a guy that's more
in touch with the SIM community interms of who the players are, what
(18:12):
series are interesting and important, andgenerally just what's going on. Like he's
my go to guy if I havea question about any of our esports series
and he doesn't look it up.He just knows so great. All right,
Well, without further ado, let'sbring in Justin Milillo. All right,
(18:33):
Kevin and I are back with ournext guest, who's also a new
new employee at IRA, saying,Justin Milillo joins us all the way from
Long Island. Thanks for coming onthe show, Welcome to the team,
welcome to the staff, and welcometo the podcast. And yeah, thanks
for coming when you were all andtold to do it right. So much
easier to get guests that are employeesbecause they have to do it. Yeah,
(18:56):
other duties as a sign surely.I mean that's part of it,
right, I mean, I'm justhappy to be here, really excited to
be here. Thanks for having me. Well, let's talk about what you're
doing at iras you know, Iintroduce yourself and seeing maybe a job title
in there somewhere, you know,let's start with that. Sure, I'm
(19:17):
justin Mlilo. I am marketing andcommunications specialist here at irasing dot com as
of a week ago. Yeah,a week and a day ago. Yeah,
just about. It's it's been awhirlwind a couple of months for me,
just out of a previous job thatI was working with previously at Traction
(19:41):
dot gig as a golly, whatwas I I was a junior editor and
communications over at Traction for about twoand a half years and now I'm here
and yeah that that that's about iton that. But I was I was
(20:03):
doing all that in the middle ofa move at the same time, which
was crazy. So it was like, you know, trying to figure out
what I'm going to do next,and luckily I managed to to get on
board with you guys here. Well, we're excited to have you and you
know, your reputation proceeds itself.You've been part of the community for a
long time. And you're an interestingstory though, because you really you made
(20:26):
your own luck in this in thisindustry by just showing up and being persistent.
Let's talk about how you kind ofgot started, because I think a
lot of people that are trying toget in esports may find your story pretty
interesting. So yeah, let's talkabout how you got involved and you know,
the yeah, your start, Yeah, it's it's it's It really goes
(20:48):
back to you know, when Iwas a kid, I just grew up
as as a huge NASCAR fan.My my grandfather and my uncle were big,
huge Nascar fans, and uh,one day, my grandfather had brought
home what was like an old macuitoshcomputer that was already outdated for the time,
but it had Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challengeon it, which was a popular
(21:12):
game in the nineties. I guessmaybe it wasn't that popular, but it
was popular to me, and thatkind of led into my love for racing
games. And I eventually got onboard with the NASCAR Racing bi Papyrus series
and I fell in love with thatand I was playing that through my childhood,
through middle school, high school,college, even and R two thousand
(21:37):
and three was my mainstay and Iabsolutely loved it. And at the same
time, I was trying to figureout what I'm going to do with my
life and ended up getting accepted toHot Street University. Didn't know what I
wanted to do, settled on adegree in journalism in print journalism, which
was a dying breed at the timein two thousand and eight twenty twelve,
(22:00):
but you know, I've kind ofturned that into what it is now.
I ended up with the racing expertsDominic Atagan took me on in twenty fourteen,
and I started writing about real NASCARraces, the actual events. I
went to places like Dover, Pocaono, New Hampshire every year and would I
(22:26):
would go to those races. I'dreport on those races. And at the
same time, I'm running a leagueon still on NR two thousand and three
a decade later, and at thesame time as that, the the NASCAR
Series is going on, the Driver'sWorld Championship it was at the time,
(22:48):
and I'm watching some of my friendsthat I grew up racing with competing for
you know, what was ten thousanddollars at the time. Eventually, in
twenty nineteen, I got the goodidea to start writing about it. I
wanted to start writing about what washappening in DwC, which then was Peak.
It was the Peak series. Istarted writing about that. I watched
(23:10):
all the races that season, coveredevery race for the racing experts, saw
Novak win. That was the sameyear that I was really getting hard into
my NASCAR coverage and I ended upgetting the the annual credential that year,
which was really big for me thatthe NASCAR gave me one of those,
(23:30):
and I ended up going to Ithink ten races that year. So that
year I was I had my computerin my car. I was bringing my
computer with me to the racetrack coveringthe races, and then on Tuesday nights
covering what was going on in Cokeor Peak any freeze at the time,
and it was pretty insane. Andthen y'all had the Media Days in twenty
(23:55):
twenty and things kind of just blewup from there, right. I think
that's when I met you. Itwas at the twenty twenty Media Days at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame and NASCARproductions, So you were the one guy
in a suit, and it wasit was like, all right, this
guy's here to he's serious about this, He's not just showing up, and
you were and your covers has beengreat, so you know, we obviously
noticed what you were doing a longtime ago, and yeah, glad that
(24:18):
it worked into something permanent here.Yeah, for sure. I mean the
I feel like twenty twenty was reallythe the catalyst for everything that's happened to
you know, kind of get everybodyto this point. Right, we had
the pandemic that year and everything thathappened with that, I jumped right on
(24:40):
it, right. I just wantedto get right involved. When when the
e NASCAR Provitational Series happened, Iwanted to. I wanted to make sure
that that got what was the propercoverage that deserved because it felt like maybe
the traditional media didn't really care toomuch for it. But I was already
(25:02):
in and I really wanted to makesure that, you know, we we
were getting this covered like it wassupposed to be. And it really took
off. And I'm really glad becauseit kind of got my name out there
and it's just been it's been clockworkever since. You know, every it
feels like every day I'm on thesim there's there's always a new race to
(25:23):
watch to be in. I likedracing myself, you know. I got
a whole expensive rig to the leftof me that that I like, you
know, jumping in from time totime and participating in myself. I still
run a league over at FtF.It's now on I Racing. We finally
got off of vn R in twentytwenty, so gotriam mighty's worth out of
(25:47):
that box product or sure for sure, but it's it's been an incredible journey.
Didn't you run the Firecracker form underthis year? No, I didn't
make the field. I tried.You attempted to qualify, attempted to qualify
for it, missed it by bythat much to get into the top eighty
eight. It was so close,so close. I was there. They
(26:11):
knew I was there. But maybenext year for sure, for sure.
Well, let's go back to whatyou said. You said a number that
that gets people's attention, especially inthe SAM racing world. You said twenty
twenty in your timing and persistence couldn'thave been better because when the world shut
down everybody's focus turned toward SIM racingand I Racing specifically, and everybody looking.
(26:38):
We already had coverage, we hadwho's this justin Lowell guy? And
it seems like that was a bigexplosion for you as well for opportunities.
You want to talk a little bitabout how that blossomed. Not because you
were you were not in an IRacing employee that time. You were,
you know, an accessory. ButI think a lot of people thought you
(26:59):
were serious. That's an interesting butI think a lot of people thought you
were involved with us on official capacity, but you were just the guy that
just did it. You're passionate.Then you covered it because you wanted to
and you felt like it deserve coverage, which was super cool for us because
to your point, mainstream media kindof got, okay, now we're going
virtual racing. They didn't really knowwhat to do with that. There are
(27:21):
differences. We all know that welive in this space, so we know
there are differences between sim racing andreal world racing. We're not trying to
be exactly the same, but we'retrying to be similar. But there are
things that happened differently and some thatwere new to the space struggled with coverage.
They didn't know is this real?Is it a joke? Like what's
going on? But to have somebodylike you who understood both sides of it
(27:44):
was super helpful for a company likeus to get the coverage we needed.
Yeah, and I think, likejust I just wanted to be there.
I just wanted I thought it wasso cool that we were going to see
I racing on our TVs on Foxon Sunday. I thought that was pretty
cool too, by the way,Yeah, I was a fan for sure.
I mean the year before the championshipwas on NBC Sports for the for
(28:10):
the coch Series finale, and Ithought that was super cool. I remember
being in my friend Matt's house atI think it was Talladega weekend. It
was Talladega weekend and I was inNashville. We were going to drive down
the next day. I was watchingit. He had it on TV,
and I had my computer set upon his on his like dining room table,
(28:32):
just so I could take pictures tothe event. And that the picture
taking, I think is what caughtpeople's attention. I wanted people to catch
the writing part of it because Ifelt like I was an okay writer,
but the picture taking is what peoplereally kind of took notice too. And
that was why when the twenty twenty, the pandemic and everything happened, people
(28:53):
were, you know, messaging me, hey, we know you take you
know, good pictures. Can youtake pictures of our cars? Like I
got Boris from j g R andmy DMS asking me if I could take
pictures for uh, you know,Kyle Busch, Martin Church or it wasn't
Martin Church. I think it wasBobby Labonie at the time, filling in
(29:14):
for for trueex for Denny Hamlin,for Christopher Bell all in there all then
their stuff, and then Boris waskind of liaisoning with the other teams and
they were you know, I endedup sending pictures over to Hendrick as well,
and I think I got Penske aswell, and you know, it
was just I was just taking picturesthe entire time. It felt like it,
(29:36):
but it was, yeah, Ijust I really did enjoy doing it.
And I hope that you know whatI was able to contribute to help
with you know, everything that thatyou know stem from that for sure,
well, working in parallel with usand once again you and I can't reiterate
this enough. You you were notpart of the Irising team at that time,
(29:56):
but you were part of the Irisingecosystem, and you were one of
the any cogs during that time thatreally helped promote the brand and promote the
product. And uh you know,definitely we're a key player in promoting the
explosion that it really was our membershipduring that time. Uh so, and
that was just really cool to see. But like I said, you made
your own luck. You know.That's It's something I think that a lot
(30:18):
of people, you know, Ijust got back from the same racing expo
a couple of weeks ago. Alot of people you know, commotes me.
How do I get involved? Whatcan I do? How can I
get on a How do I getyou know, a job in esports?
Persistency and it takes time and ifif you the cream will will rise if
you're persistent. Whether it's you know, trying to get in and working for
a publisher like I Racing or anyyou know, any of the other publishers,
(30:41):
or whether you want to be astreamer, or whether you want to
be in in media and marketing.I think you've talked to most people in
those roles, you know, persistencyand doing it not just because you're looking
for a job, but because youthoroughly enjoy the subject matter and you want
to get involved. Uh And andthose people that are persistent and are also
you know, have to have thetalent that you obviously bring the table.
Those opportunities will come, and whenyou get those opportunities, you make the
(31:04):
most of it. You know,Kevin talks about the first time he saw
you at the media day. Youshowed up in a suit, you represented
yourself well, and I think thatis something that you stood out right then
and there before he even walked upto you and introduced himself. Because that
kind of stuff makes you want towalk up and introduce yourself. Who's this
person? And you know, whenyou get the opportunity to represent yourself,
(31:25):
represent yourself well and stand out ina positive fashion, and you've done just
that, you know, And Ijust think that that is incredibly admirable and
admirable. But I also think it'sa template that a lot of people.
If you want to get in theindustry, this the way Justin did it
is is a great way, agreat way to conduct yourself and it.
It probably holds true in whatever industryyou want to get into, whether it's
(31:47):
you want to be in esports,you want to be in real sports,
you want to be in I don'tknow, pick it, but you kind
of got to You got to goout and do it. You know,
you can't just kind of wait andhope somebody offers you your job. You
got to do it and prove yourself. So thanks for wrote to say.
Chad Canawshen we were talking to himduring the MS event. Think he started
sweeping floors, like actually started sweepingfloors. And now you know, one
(32:10):
of the most successful crew chiefs crewchiefs and NASCAR history, if not the
most successful crew chief and NASCAR history, and you know, not humbling yourself
to just do whatever it takes toget in the door. So yeah,
Justin's it's a great story. Andyou know, one of the reasons when
we were looking for guests, Ithink the three of us collectively also it
sprown Justin. That's a great agreat story for this podcast. So we're
(32:34):
happy to have you on the team. It's not just happy, ecstatic to
have you on the team. Lookingforward to all the stuff that you're going
to do and uh, yeah,thanks for taking the time with us today.
Thanks for having me guys. Yeah, it was just one last point.
I mean, you just with withtrying to get into the industry.
It is really a never give upattitude with it. You just got to
keep going. You can't get discouragedwith it. You know, if you're
(32:59):
not getting reckonized, go make yourselfget recognized. I mean, you just
got to keep going with it.In twenty twenty, when I was doing
all that stuff, I was alsoworking two other jobs at the time.
I was working at Spring full time. I was working at FedEx as a
package handler, and you know,it was trying to keep my hobby and
(33:21):
with I racing and everything with theSIM racing sphere, trying to keep that
up to date. It takes alot, it does. It's not like
like you said, it's not likeanybody just hands you a job or anything
like that. I felt like Ihad to work many, many years and
get my name really out there tobe able to be in the position I'm
in. I mean, I waslucky enough to get the call from Traction
(33:45):
in twenty twenty one to finally shiftmy career full time to being a media
personality, and just if anybody islistening to one of the three or four
listeners of the podcast, like me, we have five fans now, thank
you very much, five whole fans. I'm glad to hear it. Five
(34:06):
hole there everyone, I'm still oneof them six, but you work here,
so it's still five. Okay,that's fair. But everybody who's listening,
just just know that you just gotto keep being persistent with it and
and reach out, you know,reach out to the people who are finding
success. My dms are always open. I've had people ask me about you
know, I wrote a whole guideon taking pictures and I hope people can
(34:30):
still find that guide over over onmy old website. But you know,
just I'm always willing to help withwith anybody who wants to, you know,
get into this space. And youknow, just just keep doing what
you're doing, and you know,keep making e sports and sim racing and
you know, this virtual space isas amazing as it can be. Well
(34:54):
well said, but well, onceagain, thanks for taking the time today,
even though you were voluntold to takethe time. And on that note,
let's get back to the show,all right. Great to sit down
with justin super stoked to have himon the team. I think you're going
to see more and more of hisfingerprints all over our marketing materials as we
(35:17):
move forward. And Yeah, Soun'sa fun, great guy. It was
cool to have him in the officethe other day. And let's let's move
on. We're gonna talk about esportsand let's get into the NASCAR finale because
we've not broadcast done a podcast sincethen. Chris yep E NASCAR Coca Cola
I Racing Series, Sorry the belt. Yeah, brought it back to the
(35:40):
NASCAR Hall of Fame at Charlotte lastmonth, another big event. It was
really interesting, as I think wetalked about in the last show, all
four drivers that were there had momentumfrom different sources. You had the big
race winner in Tucker Minner. Youhad Garrett Lowe who kind of that additional
(36:00):
just motivation from you know, facingsome recks during the season. Steven Wilson,
though the only driver out of thefour who had been there before,
had struggled in the previous year's finalein Phoenix, just didn't hit it just
right, but goes to Homestead andjust did what he needed to do and
(36:22):
locked up that first championship of hisone hundred thousand dollars, big win for
Stuart hawse Esports, so congrats tohim. Everybody else is now in the
Contender Series that bottom twenty and someof the top Road to Pro drivers are
fighting to try to knock him offnext year right now, so going to
be really exciting to see who makesit up. It really was a great
(36:45):
live event in Charlotte two years ina row. Great to see Stephen Wilson
get the win. He also,I think has the largest fan base that
travels with him. I think he'sfrom Iowa if I remember right, and
he brings you know, a dozenor more people to come support him,
which is awesome to see. Thebroadcast crew, Cisco Drew, the whole
team did a great job. It'sincredibly complicated to do that sort of event
(37:09):
where we've got live stuff going onthere, We've got racers all around the
US, Canada, wherever everybody is. It's it's quite an endeavor. So
who goes to the broadcast team forputting that together? Auto on our side,
who manages kind of the NASCAR relationshipRay from NASCAR, who helps organize
(37:29):
everything on that side? I mean, really is all hands on deck.
Pretty cool. We even did alittle demo of Exocross, which is pretty
neat, so people could could doa little get a little demo and see
how that's coming along. And thisis a fun event. The e NASCAR
series is incredibly cool and you know, partners like Coca Cola as well and
NASCAR, as you mentioned, allowit to be. I believe this is
(37:49):
and somebody can correct me, butI'm going to go off script here.
This is the largest person for areoccurring series, and you know it's not
a one off. We come backwith three hundred grand. I think this
is what the third year in arow, fourth year, multiple years in
a row with a prize perse forone series over three hundred thousand dollars.
The winner every year gets to gohome with a cold one hundred grand.
That is something incredibly special to bea part of. And as if you
(38:13):
guys have not been paying attention toour social media recently, our relationship with
NASCAR just grew a whole lot andwe're looking forward to bringing the console title
in twenty twenty five. Huge responsibilityand a huge privilege to be entrusted with
that, and I know Steve Myersand that whole team is incredibly excited to
(38:34):
get back to our roots and dosomething special with that, So I cannot
wait until that day, all right. Moving on to the next thing,
We've got the Turn Grand Prix SeriesChris carries on Wednesday's afternoons and the closest
road racing series you will see asthese cars are glued together like they're on
a super speedway. So I'm gonnafollow my sword here, Greg, because
(38:55):
it's actually Thursday after Thursdays. Yeah, I was gonna call you out on
that. Okay, I'm falling.I watch it in the evenings because you
can watch it whatever, you cansee it. It does, it does,
it does? Yeah, yeh,user error on my part. They
had a bullet to get the previewsout the day before instead of the day
of now, and so that previewactually went out about forty five minutes ago
(39:21):
this morning. But yeah, groundpre Turn Racing Eye Racing series has been
incredibly competitive. Up to this pointin the recording. We've only had a
single repeat winner all year, andhe's not even in the top ten points
right now, which just illustrates howchaotic the championship has been. Across the
board. The Dallara iroh one stillone of my favorite cars on I racing.
(39:45):
The collaboration that we did with Delarain twenty twenty produces some really exciting
racing. You never really know whatto expect with it now that it's gotten
oval package that allows it to thatallows you to really turn up the wick
on some of the big speedways anduh and we actually did that for the
first time earlier in the season atTexas, so that was pretty neat.
(40:07):
It's it's one of those open wheelcars that could really do it all and
as a result, it becomes adriver's car, but it also becomes a
who has it on any given daykind of car. And we've really been
seeing that in that championship with allthe different winners, all the different podium
finishers. I couldn't pick a championright now. It's you may as well
(40:27):
just go to Las Vegas and justpick a number. Don't don't pick a
color on the roulette. Will picka number because that's that's that's how interesting
it is. It feels we're abouthalfway through the season. It feels like
anybody can still win. Yeah,it's it's one of the you know,
the best shows in you know,open wheel racing you can find that's the
as far as the broadcast and thepageantry of it. Like you said,
(40:47):
flip a coin, throw a darton dartboard, you know, go to
go to Vegas and play some roulette. Doesn't really matter. Anybody can win
any week. It's a It's aboutthe person driving the car. It's not
necessarily about the best setup or whatnot, and that is what makes it exciting.
I love parody. I don't likeseeing repeat winners over and over and
over and over. Sorry, JimmyJohnson fans or you know, Max for
stapping or you know whatever, he'sgonna call you after this. If Jimmy
(41:13):
Johnson calls me after this, I'mgonna be proud that he's listening to our
podcast. I met him, Maxoh Maxwell condominance continues. But yeah,
that it's it's a lot of fun. If you've got a chance tune into
it. You can catch the recap. You can watch the previous races on
YouTube. It's some of the besthe said, openable racing you can find
in SIM racing. Moving on,we've got the Porscha tag Hoyer Esports Super
(41:36):
Cup, and we're gonna throw itover to Cisco, who's been involved in
the production of those broadcasts and knowseverything about it, and he's got the
hat. Yeah, I've got thehat, so I have to talk about
it. But now the Porsche TagHoyer Esports Contender Series in full swing.
So similar to how we have thefeeder series for free NASCAR to talk to
(42:00):
see who gets to the top levelh this is our road version of that.
So we have a six race championshipand that's getting ready to uh finish
up here. Gosh, We're we'reraces away now, right, Kevin.
I think at this point between LongBeach and Urber Green yep. So yeah,
last two races coming up when thiscomes out, Uh Nurber or Long
(42:23):
Beach will be tomorrow on the daythis releases. But nonetheless, really it's
my go to when I've been testingin the rain. What what You're gonna
bleep that out, Cisco in postit? Don't do it. I mean,
(42:45):
I'm not going to be said it, so I may have just put
them back up. Yeah, LongBeach is uh gonna be something I don't
really know what's expect because I said, oh, the NASCAR Contender race from
yesterday. When we recorded this onTuesday, I thought that was gonna be
(43:07):
tame because, oh, they justhave to be within this points threshold to
make it to the top. Andthen they kept crashing, so I don't
know. I it's Long Beach,someone's gonna be in the fountain. I
think that's always a risk when yougo to long beaches, you're gonna end
up in the fountain. It makesfor an entertaining broadcast, so everybody should
(43:27):
tune in. Yes, it does. And like I said, two races
to go Long Beach and then nerberRing, and then we'll know our fifteen
drivers were taken up to twenty twentyfour and all the fun that awaits us
for the twenty twenty four Porscha TackHoyer e Sports Supercup ding. For those
(43:49):
that are new to the show,anytime you get the name of a series
correct with the sponsors correctly, youget to ring a bell. But we
can't ring a bell because Kevin's dogfreaks out. I'm giving go half credit
there. He did stumble on aHoyer. But my voice in my ear
and it's that's a little bit ofyourself and Dan somebody else. Yeah,
you can't give your Yeah, Maverick, can't. Can't call yourself Maverick.
(44:20):
You're not allowed to do that.I'm calling you Maverick. Oh okay,
then that's fine. Yeah, Kevin, let's talk about MC sports and this.
Uh this is a really cool seriesfrom the Sports Global Championship. Is
that what you're talking about in theSports Global Championship. Yeah, So this
is going on in conjunction with IMSAdirectly. Uh v c O is involved
(44:43):
in a lot of the back endof it, organizing and getting things going.
Obviously we're broadcasting it. So prettyexciting. Uh Mini Championship. There's
four races coming up and runs inNovember and December. Multi class all the
GTP cars, the m GT threecars or GTD cars however you like to
call them, with some top teamsthat you'll recognize from the esports scene.
(45:09):
So should make for some great racing. I think you're going to see a
lot of promotion of it. Youknow, we've got manufacturers involved, teams
involved, ims IS involved, they'resuper excited about it. So we ran
a version of it last year.This is bigger and better. I think
we brought the broadcast in house,so Cisco, Drew, Sean and Corey
(45:31):
and everybody else involved will be busyon most of them runs. I think
three are on Sundays and ones ona Saturday if I remember the schedule correctly.
But it kicks off on November fifth. Check out our website for the
full details and whatnot. But I'mexcited for it, so it should be
cool. No, it's it's goingto be a lot of fun. Anything
we do with them, this isa lot of fun. We've we've had
(45:52):
some really cool programs with them overthe last few years, and sure looking
forward to it. Shout out toMax there on the Socide, who's instrumental
in making this happen so real,MVP. He just kind of goes with
it. Yeah, we have someand we'll have some uh probably some Imus
special event news by the time werecord our next podcast. Maybe maybe format
(46:15):
update right maybe sure? Okay,oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
oh yeah yeah that thing, ohyeah thing. Yeah. You've been like
I've been prodding you to have meetingsand things. Yeah okay, yeah,
yeah, this guy, which wayis he's over here? This guy,
(46:36):
I need more coffee. Sorry,I'm almost out, and yeah, good
times all right, Well, uh, that was the last bullet, wasn't
it. That was the last bullet. I don't know what to do now.
It says wrap up, but there'sno bullets. I don't know.
Well, thanks for listening to thisedition of the I Racing down Shift.
Don't forget to rate, review,and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and anywhere else. Chris has putthis thing for Kevin Bobbitt. Chris Leoni,
(46:58):
I am Greg West. We'll seeyou on the track, probably unless
we crash, in which case we'llsee you in Sadly, there it is.
This week on the I Racing DownShift, Greg's self reports, we continue
to be bad at our job,but it's okay. Kevin gets penalized worked
on a team where we got penalizedfor that because we didn't change the board
on anything. And Chris reveals hisnew spotter we call like Sasquatch out of
the woods and we have him,you know, in the hairpin, Like
(00:23):
yeah all that more so strap inwelcome to that Racing downship. I'm me
he hou's Greg West, I'm backof the boys, Kevin bobb It and
Chris Leoni. Hey, we didit. It's like only been six weeks.
We've got another podcast. We havedone pretty good for twenty twenty three
some statvoid. Does any even knowhow many episodes we did this year?
(00:44):
Anybody top of their head? Wedidn't talk about this in pre production,
but I'm just so immediately we offscript off like you are welcome, audible
at the line, Yeah, you'rewelcome for that. There is no point
in having an outline. We continueto be bad at our jobs, but
it's okay. It's another episode ofthe iRacing down Shift. What have we
been up to? Chris, I'mthrowing this to you because Twitter or x
(01:07):
or whatever it's called. This weekyou have been a troll, an absolute
troll, and I've loved every momentof it. Well, thank you,
Greg, I have. I havebeen cranking the new Blink one eighty two
album, and I have been goingto war with race car drivers about the
fact that they don't own the racetrack. Actually, Parker does own the racetrack,
just he He has phrased it asI own a blade of grass somewhere
(01:30):
at Limerock Park. It's more thanI Sorry, does that mean? Does
that mean I support Parker because Ihave the shirt? Yes, I mean,
I'm on. I bet he probablyhe probably got seven or eight cents
out of that, maybe not thatmuch. Not about that's more than I
(01:51):
made when I used to do Tshirts back in the day. But no
trek limits, friends. They existfor a reason. They exist for safety
reasons, and they exist so drivershave to actually show some skills and not
just UH if I fits, Isits with anything. Sorry, you're strong
opinions, right, So that's good, not at all, no note at
(02:13):
all. What do you think ofskid plates? Uh? As somebody who
never did the uh never really didthe engineering side on cars. My opinion
is the rule book exists for areason. Operate within the freaking rule book.
If you can't do that, that'sa you thing. Chris is fired
up. I've actually worked on ateam where we got penalized for that because
(02:35):
we didn't change the board underneath.And it happens that it was not Lewis
Hamilton's team, by the way,just just to clarify, I was not
a crew member for that team,a slightly lower level team, but same
issue. And you know, yougot to you gotta pay attention. Was
that a most part? Where wasit it was at? I don't remember
(02:57):
what track it was. I don'tthink it was most poor, Maybe it
was I it was. I thinkit was most sporgs. We talked about
it because people talk about floor damageon I race. Maybe it was,
yeah, And I'm like, ah, I mean, I mean Canadian Entire
Motorports, Canadian Entire Motorsport Park,Yes, that one. But the floor
damage at that track, that isa feature, not a bug. That's
realism. Yes, yes, wellit probably was there, but yeah,
(03:21):
yeah, it's the thing. Soanyway, Yeah, it's I don't know,
I get it. People are competitiveand It's always easier to blame the
rule book than reflect on your ownmistakes. But maybe I should send Parker
a coloring book and some crayons forChristmas so we can practice who But the
time to argue about rules is beforethe season starts. Once the rules are
you've decided to compete, you gotto follow them, whether you like them
(03:42):
or not. You can choose torace or not. But the rules are
the rules. Hey, But theoutcome Logan Sergeant gets just American to score
points in thirty years. Yeah,Logan thirty years. That means the guys
producing this podcast have never seen anAmerican points, right, Cisco. I
(04:02):
don't know how you turned this intoa dig at me, but sure now
that was more of a dig onme because I'm old. You are old.
You are old? That is true. Can confirm what have you been
up to, Kevin? Well?Do you want to see a Taylor Smid
movie tonight? Oh my gosh,Greg's trying to get me to go to
see Taylor Swift. So more onthat in the next podcast. But I've
(04:24):
been enjoying fall because it's my favoriteseason and my soccer team, yes it's
called soccer, is doing pretty well, sit second in the standings on our
way to the playoffs. So veryexcited about that. Six and two not
bad for old man soccer. Howmany promotions would you need to make League
two? I want to see youguys. Okay, So you're saying there's
(04:46):
a chance, there's a chance,there's a chance. There are some guys
in my league that think there's definitelya chance. They are a little bit
try hard, and those are theguys that end up with yellow and red
cards. Off we make fun ofthem. Yeah, but we're having a
good season. We're having fun,still fun to play great. Got a
game this weekend. Pretty excited,very cool. We go off last week.
(05:09):
I thought I beat him. Idid not, coming up. I
just found out a week later thatI did not beat Kevin, although I
played pretty well for myself. SoI'm happy, and then you are.
So that's interesting that I want.I wasn't gonna take a dig on that.
It's a gentleman's game. I trustthat you have kept all those drops,
were counting yourself if you cheating,right, that's right, That's why
(05:31):
I like playing with Kevin. Allright, Well let's get an I racing.
What's been going on in the community. I'm looking at Chris's outline.
Now, I got to give Chriscredit half credit because half of the outline
has appropriate bullets. They're probably maybea link to the photo and a picture
of the outline in the description.Half of the the outline has bullets,
(05:53):
the other half has hyphens. Ithink your computer's messed up because I see
bullets on all of them. Iwill take a screen shot. I'm going
full Parker and I'm disputing the I'mdisputing the what's out there? All right,
We're gonna have to have Doug puta tweet up. And apparently not
much is going on in I Racingif we're just debating bullet we're arguing bullets
and hyphens. Yeah. Well,we do continue to work on on rain.
(06:16):
A lot of a lot of rainhappening on I Racing. So that's
about all we can say for December, isn't it. That's the full update
on that we're working on rain.That's it. We're working on rain.
We're doing well. Next bullet point, please, Hey, I can't talk
about that. Oh yeah, orwhat about that? Yeah, yeah,
we're having communication that allows us todo so so and yeah, that we
(06:41):
can't, can't do it. It'stoo soon. It's only week six,
it's early. Yeah, we needto get Tony on here. He'll just
tell you everything that's true. ChristmasPresent to Iras and we'll bring Tony on
next month. What's happening in twentytwenty four? Yeah, Tony, if
you're listening, what's up? Allright? Special events up? Though?
We had We had a big October. We had Crandon. I know Chris
(07:02):
Hayes the racing, but we hadCrandon. Yeah, and in Cisco you
were involved in Crandon in some capacity, right, Yeah. I ended up
my good friend Keenan Kusen, whois a streamer does a lot of eye
racing. He ended up making thetop twenty. He was the twentieth driver,
and we barely snuck in. Sowhere did you finish up? So
(07:27):
we top ten in the heat andthen I think we got hurt in the
features, so somewhere in the thirteensor so. So, I mean it
was a that game because we camein this car twenty So yeah, did
you fail at your job or didhe fail at the behind the wheel?
Well, we came in privateer,so we had no setup, help,
(07:48):
no nothing, versus every All thepro teams were there, the world champion
was there, so we'll take itthat sounds like a really professional race organization.
Blame or quin. He didn't answerthe question either. Now, look,
I just got to thank all theguys back at the shop. They
gave us fantastic a long career inracing system. I love it. True
(08:13):
or false, your driver would havebeen better off using the default spotter pack
we did. I was supplementary,sir, oh right, good times.
So he had two spotters, hehad the default pack and he had you.
So that's about yeah, three morethan they have in the real world.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.Which if you've ever been around Crandon,
(08:37):
there are absolutely cases where you coulduse like five spotters at one time.
It's crazy out there. Yeah,sometimes we stick we call like Sasquatch
out of the woods and we havehim, you know, in the hairpin,
like yeah, well dude lost,I'm lost. Yeah, hey,
Kevin, let's talk with the SECArunoffs. Run off happened the last year.
(09:01):
Yes, runoffs were great, oneof the coolest broadcasts that I ended
up watching the whole thing. Itried to race specrate, so I didn't
make top split because I think soI had to work all day, sorry
Cisco, Yeah, six hours.It was great. I really enjoyed it.
I sat on the couch and watchedracing and yeah, I really really
enjoyed that. So nice job broadcaston World Esports Stay too. Yeah,
(09:26):
but for those that don't know,we had six races back to back to
back to back whatever, with thecar classes loosely representing what's available in the
SECA. It's not a one toone comparison. I do know there were
some some people that weren't happy thatit wasn't directly one to one, but
for participation reasons, we do thebest we can to emulate what happens,
(09:48):
and I think it was an excellentjob. We saw a lot of new
names in the broadcast and I thinkthat's my one of my favorite parts about
it. Even though we didn't usesuper sessions this year, if you're good
in the car, we probably canmake the broadcast. And so there was.
We had six races. We hadone person did win two events.
I forget the name. Sorry I'mfailure, but just a fun broadcast.
(10:11):
Really enjoyed it all and looking forwardto next year. We should get on
a call and talk about that sometime. Let's do it. Let's see coming
now and October November is pretty busyin a special event land. We've got
the NIS Finale at Phoenix. That'llbe elbows out, lots of fun.
We've got the Fuji eight out now, that's a new one for us.
(10:33):
We were replacing the ten Hours ofSuzuka. So GT three is only at
Fuji and people are already talking aboutsetups. I think that's actually gonna be
a really big event, first timewe've run that one. And then brand
new, newly announced the FF sixteenhundred Festival, which is going to emulate
the Formula Ford Festival over in theUK. Let's put on by Motorsport UK
(10:56):
and b R SCC and a coolformat. We're gonna use a couple of
heats. You're gonna have you know, two heats and then a last chance
qualifier and then the main loosely emulatingwhat they do over multiple days in the
UK. Brands Hatch, that's it. Brands Hatch Indy, Uh, just
gonna be a cool broadcast. Ithink they run something that I would say
(11:18):
similar to like the Chili Bowl.You know, they have all these qualifying
races throughout the week and all that. So we're doing it in sort of
one session to get people involved,but we're trying to make it as similar
and is interesting because it's kind ofa special format. So it should be
a great broadcast, should be coolrace, you know. I think it's
pretty much up into what everybody danabove. Is that yep, everybody dan
(11:39):
above. There's a trivia. Doyou know who won last year's Real World
event and what sponsor was on theside of the car. I'm thinking that
you've set us up to Saint MaxEsterson's name you you are correct, I'm
guessing that it was not Well,I won't guess the sponsor, it was
I Racing, I know no.So Max is the reigning champion, so
(12:03):
really cool to have that to bringthat real world tie. And also,
Kevin, are we're sponsoring the realworld event this year too. Yeah,
we should be all over the realworld broadcasts and whatnot, so that'll be
neat to get some exposure. Youknow, we're always trying to get the
name out there and get I Racingsome new eyeballs. So it's a nice
tie in both to have the virtualversion and then be connected in the real
(12:26):
world version. It kind of comesfull circle, so neat opportunity there.
Very cool work continues on the twentytwenty four special Events calendar. It is
all over my desk right now.That is a fun puzzle to put together.
We're hoping to announce it right dotWest at I racing dot com if
you have suggestions again, which automaticallyforwards to Kevin dot Bob at I racing
(12:46):
dot com if you would like hiscell phone number. Oh gosh, here
we go. I'm not that mean, but yeah, we hope to have
that available publicly the end of Novemberbeginning of December, like we usually do.
Please please don't blow up support theyit's the same questions every year.
It's coming hashtag soon. We promisewe'll have it to you as soon as
(13:09):
we're able to announce it. Chrisprobably guess what the main events will be.
I mean, we're not you know, I bet it's really popular.
They're not going to go away,you know. I mean it's it'll be
similar, So I bet it kicksoff with the roar. I'd go out
and what cars are in the roarmight change, but yeah, roar and
in Daytona twenty four. I'm willingto bet those happen in January in close
(13:31):
proximity to the real world Daytona twentyand then Chris, we've got qualifying away
for NASCAR A College Series and they'reat Dover. Yep, next one coming
to Dover. College Series has beenreally interesting this year with all of the
all the different races. Instead ofrunning the spring and fall semesters separate,
(13:52):
it's turned into a big eight racekind of season and then points being tracked
and then a finale at the veryend. But yeah, this time up
we're at Dover, so qualifying isgoing underway now that runs through Halloween,
so they're switching between the trucks andthe X fin D cars. So definitely
one to circle your calendars depending uponwhich vehicle you're better in, but hopefully
(14:16):
if you're trying out for that one, you're pretty good at both. Absolutely
still in Chris's line, high word, we also have a new piece coming
out on Monday's tweek in I rasing We're trying to do a better job
of saying what's going on this week? You know, is we have so
many special series and high profile series, and Chris and Kevin have done a
(14:39):
nice job along with Justin Malillo,who's going to be our special guest today,
putting that together. Kevin, Chris, you guys want to talk about
that a little bit. That's beenyour guys project. Sure, Chris,
take it away. Fun fact,this is basically how the back end of
this came about because Kevin hitched itas we were in the process. So
(15:01):
I think Greg started this conversation,well, yeah, that's the thing,
and you conveniently left that out andI didn't find that out until I found
it out from Greg on Monday evening. But uh, yeah, we've just
been trying to compile everything that's kindof going on in the service. There
were a lot of things going on. We're always talking internally about how can
we draw more attention to things,how can we do a better job of
(15:22):
getting this information out there. Andif you're paying attention to the UI on
the website, you'll know that there'sa call to action every Monday morning for
all the special events. You'll knowthat we've been really trying to get these
things out there. On stuff likethe college series that we just talked about.
We do a ton of esports coverage, previews and recaps for the big
(15:43):
series, and we're even able toexpand that a little bit with Justin having
come on board, but we wantedto have something that gets all of this
information as best as we can inone place. It's still a bit of
a work in progress. That wasone of the things that the three of
us were kind of talking about aswe were doing the pre show meeting is
we're still massaging it. We're stillfiguring out what goes where, trying to
(16:03):
keep those community events towards the top, but working some things so that if
you're not seeing all those other callto action, or if you're seeing all
those other call to actions and esportscoverage and whatever, you'll know about some
of the other things that are goingon. So, yeah, really cool
initiative. It's it really comes morefrom the other two guys that are the
(16:23):
host of the show than me.I'm just kind of trying to herd the
cats on all the events and giveJustine some direction. Chris is doing the
work, I'm Justin's doing the work. I'm the shop foreman. I'm just
you know, nice written. No, really, what I am is I'm
Harry Hog and Dais of Thunder.I'm sitting in the pit box eating the
(16:44):
ice cream. You can drive throughit. I know it in my heart.
Well, we'll use that as asegue. I'm going to read this
directly off the Islands segued this intointroducing Justin, who has our special guest
today. Justin Little, longtime communitymember, a huge advocate for I Racing
and SIM Racing as a whole.My intro is not nearly as good as
Chris is, and Chris can talkabout all his accolades, including a Simmy,
(17:10):
got a Simmy, He's got NationalMotorsports Press Awards. Justin. Yes,
most of the people who are listeningto this show are probably familiar with
Justin's work in some way, shapeor form. He's run a ton of
different leagues on the service, He'sworked for some other sites in the community
where he's done a lot of IRacing coverage. The opportunity came up to
(17:30):
bring him on board. I wasbasically beating down Kevin's door for months on
this one, saying, please getme some help, Please get me some
help. I think in those exactwords, you've probably seen Justin start working
into our coverage, doing some racerecaps for some of our bigger series over
(17:51):
the course of the season. Butnow we've got him on board full time
and he's serving a lot of differentroles for us. Takes amazing screenshots,
writes, incredible rec caps, justdoes a fantastic job. He's he's a
Swiss Army knife at everything basically thathe can do within the SIM and so
we're thrilled to have him. Yeah, you won't find a guy that's more
in touch with the SIM community interms of who the players are, what
(18:12):
series are interesting and important, andgenerally just what's going on. Like he's
my go to guy if I havea question about any of our esports series
and he doesn't look it up.He just knows so great. All right,
Well, without further ado, let'sbring in Justin Milillo. All right,
(18:33):
Kevin and I are back with ournext guest, who's also a new
new employee at IRA, saying,Justin Milillo joins us all the way from
Long Island. Thanks for coming onthe show, Welcome to the team,
welcome to the staff, and welcometo the podcast. And yeah, thanks
for coming when you were all andtold to do it right. So much
easier to get guests that are employeesbecause they have to do it. Yeah,
(18:56):
other duties as a sign surely.I mean that's part of it,
right, I mean, I'm justhappy to be here, really excited to
be here. Thanks for having me. Well, let's talk about what you're
doing at iras you know, Iintroduce yourself and seeing maybe a job title
in there somewhere, you know,let's start with that. Sure, I'm
(19:17):
justin Mlilo. I am marketing andcommunications specialist here at irasing dot com as
of a week ago. Yeah,a week and a day ago. Yeah,
just about. It's it's been awhirlwind a couple of months for me,
just out of a previous job thatI was working with previously at Traction
(19:41):
dot gig as a golly, whatwas I I was a junior editor and
communications over at Traction for about twoand a half years and now I'm here
and yeah that that that's about iton that. But I was I was
(20:03):
doing all that in the middle ofa move at the same time, which
was crazy. So it was like, you know, trying to figure out
what I'm going to do next,and luckily I managed to to get on
board with you guys here. Well, we're excited to have you and you
know, your reputation proceeds itself.You've been part of the community for a
long time. And you're an interestingstory though, because you really you made
(20:26):
your own luck in this in thisindustry by just showing up and being persistent.
Let's talk about how you kind ofgot started, because I think a
lot of people that are trying toget in esports may find your story pretty
interesting. So yeah, let's talkabout how you got involved and you know,
the yeah, your start, Yeah, it's it's it's It really goes
(20:48):
back to you know, when Iwas a kid, I just grew up
as as a huge NASCAR fan.My my grandfather and my uncle were big,
huge Nascar fans, and uh,one day, my grandfather had brought
home what was like an old macuitoshcomputer that was already outdated for the time,
but it had Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challengeon it, which was a popular
(21:12):
game in the nineties. I guessmaybe it wasn't that popular, but it
was popular to me, and thatkind of led into my love for racing
games. And I eventually got onboard with the NASCAR Racing bi Papyrus series
and I fell in love with thatand I was playing that through my childhood,
through middle school, high school,college, even and R two thousand
(21:37):
and three was my mainstay and Iabsolutely loved it. And at the same
time, I was trying to figureout what I'm going to do with my
life and ended up getting accepted toHot Street University. Didn't know what I
wanted to do, settled on adegree in journalism in print journalism, which
was a dying breed at the timein two thousand and eight twenty twelve,
(22:00):
but you know, I've kind ofturned that into what it is now.
I ended up with the racing expertsDominic Atagan took me on in twenty fourteen,
and I started writing about real NASCARraces, the actual events. I
went to places like Dover, Pocaono, New Hampshire every year and would I
(22:26):
would go to those races. I'dreport on those races. And at the
same time, I'm running a leagueon still on NR two thousand and three
a decade later, and at thesame time as that, the the NASCAR
Series is going on, the Driver'sWorld Championship it was at the time,
(22:48):
and I'm watching some of my friendsthat I grew up racing with competing for
you know, what was ten thousanddollars at the time. Eventually, in
twenty nineteen, I got the goodidea to start writing about it. I
wanted to start writing about what washappening in DwC, which then was Peak.
It was the Peak series. Istarted writing about that. I watched
(23:10):
all the races that season, coveredevery race for the racing experts, saw
Novak win. That was the sameyear that I was really getting hard into
my NASCAR coverage and I ended upgetting the the annual credential that year,
which was really big for me thatthe NASCAR gave me one of those,
(23:30):
and I ended up going to Ithink ten races that year. So that
year I was I had my computerin my car. I was bringing my
computer with me to the racetrack coveringthe races, and then on Tuesday nights
covering what was going on in Cokeor Peak any freeze at the time,
and it was pretty insane. Andthen y'all had the Media Days in twenty
(23:55):
twenty and things kind of just blewup from there, right. I think
that's when I met you. Itwas at the twenty twenty Media Days at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame and NASCARproductions, So you were the one guy
in a suit, and it wasit was like, all right, this
guy's here to he's serious about this, He's not just showing up, and
you were and your covers has beengreat, so you know, we obviously
noticed what you were doing a longtime ago, and yeah, glad that
(24:18):
it worked into something permanent here.Yeah, for sure. I mean the
I feel like twenty twenty was reallythe the catalyst for everything that's happened to
you know, kind of get everybodyto this point. Right, we had
the pandemic that year and everything thathappened with that, I jumped right on
(24:40):
it, right. I just wantedto get right involved. When when the
e NASCAR Provitational Series happened, Iwanted to. I wanted to make sure
that that got what was the propercoverage that deserved because it felt like maybe
the traditional media didn't really care toomuch for it. But I was already
(25:02):
in and I really wanted to makesure that, you know, we we
were getting this covered like it wassupposed to be. And it really took
off. And I'm really glad becauseit kind of got my name out there
and it's just been it's been clockworkever since. You know, every it
feels like every day I'm on thesim there's there's always a new race to
(25:23):
watch to be in. I likedracing myself, you know. I got
a whole expensive rig to the leftof me that that I like, you
know, jumping in from time totime and participating in myself. I still
run a league over at FtF.It's now on I Racing. We finally
got off of vn R in twentytwenty, so gotriam mighty's worth out of
(25:47):
that box product or sure for sure, but it's it's been an incredible journey.
Didn't you run the Firecracker form underthis year? No, I didn't
make the field. I tried.You attempted to qualify, attempted to qualify
for it, missed it by bythat much to get into the top eighty
eight. It was so close,so close. I was there. They
(26:11):
knew I was there. But maybenext year for sure, for sure.
Well, let's go back to whatyou said. You said a number that
that gets people's attention, especially inthe SAM racing world. You said twenty
twenty in your timing and persistence couldn'thave been better because when the world shut
down everybody's focus turned toward SIM racingand I Racing specifically, and everybody looking.
(26:38):
We already had coverage, we hadwho's this justin Lowell guy? And
it seems like that was a bigexplosion for you as well for opportunities.
You want to talk a little bitabout how that blossomed. Not because you
were you were not in an IRacing employee that time. You were,
you know, an accessory. ButI think a lot of people thought you
(26:59):
were serious. That's an interesting butI think a lot of people thought you
were involved with us on official capacity, but you were just the guy that
just did it. You're passionate.Then you covered it because you wanted to
and you felt like it deserve coverage, which was super cool for us because
to your point, mainstream media kindof got, okay, now we're going
virtual racing. They didn't really knowwhat to do with that. There are
(27:21):
differences. We all know that welive in this space, so we know
there are differences between sim racing andreal world racing. We're not trying to
be exactly the same, but we'retrying to be similar. But there are
things that happened differently and some thatwere new to the space struggled with coverage.
They didn't know is this real?Is it a joke? Like what's
going on? But to have somebodylike you who understood both sides of it
(27:44):
was super helpful for a company likeus to get the coverage we needed.
Yeah, and I think, likejust I just wanted to be there.
I just wanted I thought it wasso cool that we were going to see
I racing on our TVs on Foxon Sunday. I thought that was pretty
cool too, by the way,Yeah, I was a fan for sure.
I mean the year before the championshipwas on NBC Sports for the for
(28:10):
the coch Series finale, and Ithought that was super cool. I remember
being in my friend Matt's house atI think it was Talladega weekend. It
was Talladega weekend and I was inNashville. We were going to drive down
the next day. I was watchingit. He had it on TV,
and I had my computer set upon his on his like dining room table,
(28:32):
just so I could take pictures tothe event. And that the picture
taking, I think is what caughtpeople's attention. I wanted people to catch
the writing part of it because Ifelt like I was an okay writer,
but the picture taking is what peoplereally kind of took notice too. And
that was why when the twenty twenty, the pandemic and everything happened, people
(28:53):
were, you know, messaging me, hey, we know you take you
know, good pictures. Can youtake pictures of our cars? Like I
got Boris from j g R andmy DMS asking me if I could take
pictures for uh, you know,Kyle Busch, Martin Church or it wasn't
Martin Church. I think it wasBobby Labonie at the time, filling in
(29:14):
for for trueex for Denny Hamlin,for Christopher Bell all in there all then
their stuff, and then Boris waskind of liaisoning with the other teams and
they were you know, I endedup sending pictures over to Hendrick as well,
and I think I got Penske aswell, and you know, it
was just I was just taking picturesthe entire time. It felt like it,
(29:36):
but it was, yeah, Ijust I really did enjoy doing it.
And I hope that you know whatI was able to contribute to help
with you know, everything that thatyou know stem from that for sure,
well, working in parallel with usand once again you and I can't reiterate
this enough. You you were notpart of the Irising team at that time,
(29:56):
but you were part of the Irisingecosystem, and you were one of
the any cogs during that time thatreally helped promote the brand and promote the
product. And uh you know,definitely we're a key player in promoting the
explosion that it really was our membershipduring that time. Uh so, and
that was just really cool to see. But like I said, you made
your own luck. You know.That's It's something I think that a lot
(30:18):
of people, you know, Ijust got back from the same racing expo
a couple of weeks ago. Alot of people you know, commotes me.
How do I get involved? Whatcan I do? How can I
get on a How do I getyou know, a job in esports?
Persistency and it takes time and ifif you the cream will will rise if
you're persistent. Whether it's you know, trying to get in and working for
a publisher like I Racing or anyyou know, any of the other publishers,
(30:41):
or whether you want to be astreamer, or whether you want to
be in in media and marketing.I think you've talked to most people in
those roles, you know, persistencyand doing it not just because you're looking
for a job, but because youthoroughly enjoy the subject matter and you want
to get involved. Uh And andthose people that are persistent and are also
you know, have to have thetalent that you obviously bring the table.
Those opportunities will come, and whenyou get those opportunities, you make the
(31:04):
most of it. You know,Kevin talks about the first time he saw
you at the media day. Youshowed up in a suit, you represented
yourself well, and I think thatis something that you stood out right then
and there before he even walked upto you and introduced himself. Because that
kind of stuff makes you want towalk up and introduce yourself. Who's this
person? And you know, whenyou get the opportunity to represent yourself,
(31:25):
represent yourself well and stand out ina positive fashion, and you've done just
that, you know, And Ijust think that that is incredibly admirable and
admirable. But I also think it'sa template that a lot of people.
If you want to get in theindustry, this the way Justin did it
is is a great way, agreat way to conduct yourself and it.
It probably holds true in whatever industryyou want to get into, whether it's
(31:47):
you want to be in esports,you want to be in real sports,
you want to be in I don'tknow, pick it, but you kind
of got to You got to goout and do it. You know,
you can't just kind of wait andhope somebody offers you your job. You
got to do it and prove yourself. So thanks for wrote to say.
Chad Canawshen we were talking to himduring the MS event. Think he started
sweeping floors, like actually started sweepingfloors. And now you know, one
(32:10):
of the most successful crew chiefs crewchiefs and NASCAR history, if not the
most successful crew chief and NASCAR history, and you know, not humbling yourself
to just do whatever it takes toget in the door. So yeah,
Justin's it's a great story. Andyou know, one of the reasons when
we were looking for guests, Ithink the three of us collectively also it
sprown Justin. That's a great agreat story for this podcast. So we're
(32:34):
happy to have you on the team. It's not just happy, ecstatic to
have you on the team. Lookingforward to all the stuff that you're going
to do and uh, yeah,thanks for taking the time with us today.
Thanks for having me guys. Yeah, it was just one last point.
I mean, you just with withtrying to get into the industry.
It is really a never give upattitude with it. You just got to
keep going. You can't get discouragedwith it. You know, if you're
(32:59):
not getting reckonized, go make yourselfget recognized. I mean, you just
got to keep going with it.In twenty twenty, when I was doing
all that stuff, I was alsoworking two other jobs at the time.
I was working at Spring full time. I was working at FedEx as a
package handler, and you know,it was trying to keep my hobby and
(33:21):
with I racing and everything with theSIM racing sphere, trying to keep that
up to date. It takes alot, it does. It's not like
like you said, it's not likeanybody just hands you a job or anything
like that. I felt like Ihad to work many, many years and
get my name really out there tobe able to be in the position I'm
in. I mean, I waslucky enough to get the call from Traction
(33:45):
in twenty twenty one to finally shiftmy career full time to being a media
personality, and just if anybody islistening to one of the three or four
listeners of the podcast, like me, we have five fans now, thank
you very much, five whole fans. I'm glad to hear it. Five
(34:06):
hole there everyone, I'm still oneof them six, but you work here,
so it's still five. Okay,that's fair. But everybody who's listening,
just just know that you just gotto keep being persistent with it and
and reach out, you know,reach out to the people who are finding
success. My dms are always open. I've had people ask me about you
know, I wrote a whole guideon taking pictures and I hope people can
(34:30):
still find that guide over over onmy old website. But you know,
just I'm always willing to help withwith anybody who wants to, you know,
get into this space. And youknow, just just keep doing what
you're doing, and you know,keep making e sports and sim racing and
you know, this virtual space isas amazing as it can be. Well
(34:54):
well said, but well, onceagain, thanks for taking the time today,
even though you were voluntold to takethe time. And on that note,
let's get back to the show,all right. Great to sit down
with justin super stoked to have himon the team. I think you're going
to see more and more of hisfingerprints all over our marketing materials as we
(35:17):
move forward. And Yeah, Soun'sa fun, great guy. It was
cool to have him in the officethe other day. And let's let's move
on. We're gonna talk about esportsand let's get into the NASCAR finale because
we've not broadcast done a podcast sincethen. Chris yep E NASCAR Coca Cola
I Racing Series, Sorry the belt. Yeah, brought it back to the
(35:40):
NASCAR Hall of Fame at Charlotte lastmonth, another big event. It was
really interesting, as I think wetalked about in the last show, all
four drivers that were there had momentumfrom different sources. You had the big
race winner in Tucker Minner. Youhad Garrett Lowe who kind of that additional
(36:00):
just motivation from you know, facingsome recks during the season. Steven Wilson,
though the only driver out of thefour who had been there before,
had struggled in the previous year's finalein Phoenix, just didn't hit it just
right, but goes to Homestead andjust did what he needed to do and
(36:22):
locked up that first championship of hisone hundred thousand dollars, big win for
Stuart hawse Esports, so congrats tohim. Everybody else is now in the
Contender Series that bottom twenty and someof the top Road to Pro drivers are
fighting to try to knock him offnext year right now, so going to
be really exciting to see who makesit up. It really was a great
(36:45):
live event in Charlotte two years ina row. Great to see Stephen Wilson
get the win. He also,I think has the largest fan base that
travels with him. I think he'sfrom Iowa if I remember right, and
he brings you know, a dozenor more people to come support him,
which is awesome to see. Thebroadcast crew, Cisco Drew, the whole
team did a great job. It'sincredibly complicated to do that sort of event
(37:09):
where we've got live stuff going onthere, We've got racers all around the
US, Canada, wherever everybody is. It's it's quite an endeavor. So
who goes to the broadcast team forputting that together? Auto on our side,
who manages kind of the NASCAR relationshipRay from NASCAR, who helps organize
(37:29):
everything on that side? I mean, really is all hands on deck.
Pretty cool. We even did alittle demo of Exocross, which is pretty
neat, so people could could doa little get a little demo and see
how that's coming along. And thisis a fun event. The e NASCAR
series is incredibly cool and you know, partners like Coca Cola as well and
NASCAR, as you mentioned, allowit to be. I believe this is
(37:49):
and somebody can correct me, butI'm going to go off script here.
This is the largest person for areoccurring series, and you know it's not
a one off. We come backwith three hundred grand. I think this
is what the third year in arow, fourth year, multiple years in
a row with a prize perse forone series over three hundred thousand dollars.
The winner every year gets to gohome with a cold one hundred grand.
That is something incredibly special to bea part of. And as if you
(38:13):
guys have not been paying attention toour social media recently, our relationship with
NASCAR just grew a whole lot andwe're looking forward to bringing the console title
in twenty twenty five. Huge responsibilityand a huge privilege to be entrusted with
that, and I know Steve Myersand that whole team is incredibly excited to
(38:34):
get back to our roots and dosomething special with that, So I cannot
wait until that day, all right. Moving on to the next thing,
We've got the Turn Grand Prix SeriesChris carries on Wednesday's afternoons and the closest
road racing series you will see asthese cars are glued together like they're on
a super speedway. So I'm gonnafollow my sword here, Greg, because
(38:55):
it's actually Thursday after Thursdays. Yeah, I was gonna call you out on
that. Okay, I'm falling.I watch it in the evenings because you
can watch it whatever, you cansee it. It does, it does,
it does? Yeah, yeh,user error on my part. They
had a bullet to get the previewsout the day before instead of the day
of now, and so that previewactually went out about forty five minutes ago
(39:21):
this morning. But yeah, groundpre Turn Racing Eye Racing series has been
incredibly competitive. Up to this pointin the recording. We've only had a
single repeat winner all year, andhe's not even in the top ten points
right now, which just illustrates howchaotic the championship has been. Across the
board. The Dallara iroh one stillone of my favorite cars on I racing.
(39:45):
The collaboration that we did with Delarain twenty twenty produces some really exciting
racing. You never really know whatto expect with it now that it's gotten
oval package that allows it to thatallows you to really turn up the wick
on some of the big speedways anduh and we actually did that for the
first time earlier in the season atTexas, so that was pretty neat.
(40:07):
It's it's one of those open wheelcars that could really do it all and
as a result, it becomes adriver's car, but it also becomes a
who has it on any given daykind of car. And we've really been
seeing that in that championship with allthe different winners, all the different podium
finishers. I couldn't pick a championright now. It's you may as well
(40:27):
just go to Las Vegas and justpick a number. Don't don't pick a
color on the roulette. Will picka number because that's that's that's how interesting
it is. It feels we're abouthalfway through the season. It feels like
anybody can still win. Yeah,it's it's one of the you know,
the best shows in you know,open wheel racing you can find that's the
as far as the broadcast and thepageantry of it. Like you said,
(40:47):
flip a coin, throw a darton dartboard, you know, go to
go to Vegas and play some roulette. Doesn't really matter. Anybody can win
any week. It's a It's aboutthe person driving the car. It's not
necessarily about the best setup or whatnot, and that is what makes it exciting.
I love parody. I don't likeseeing repeat winners over and over and
over and over. Sorry, JimmyJohnson fans or you know, Max for
stapping or you know whatever, he'sgonna call you after this. If Jimmy
(41:13):
Johnson calls me after this, I'mgonna be proud that he's listening to our
podcast. I met him, Maxoh Maxwell condominance continues. But yeah,
that it's it's a lot of fun. If you've got a chance tune into
it. You can catch the recap. You can watch the previous races on
YouTube. It's some of the besthe said, openable racing you can find
in SIM racing. Moving on,we've got the Porscha tag Hoyer Esports Super
(41:36):
Cup, and we're gonna throw itover to Cisco, who's been involved in
the production of those broadcasts and knowseverything about it, and he's got the
hat. Yeah, I've got thehat, so I have to talk about
it. But now the Porsche TagHoyer Esports Contender Series in full swing.
So similar to how we have thefeeder series for free NASCAR to talk to
(42:00):
see who gets to the top levelh this is our road version of that.
So we have a six race championshipand that's getting ready to uh finish
up here. Gosh, We're we'reraces away now, right, Kevin.
I think at this point between LongBeach and Urber Green yep. So yeah,
last two races coming up when thiscomes out, Uh Nurber or Long
(42:23):
Beach will be tomorrow on the daythis releases. But nonetheless, really it's
my go to when I've been testingin the rain. What what You're gonna
bleep that out, Cisco in postit? Don't do it. I mean,
(42:45):
I'm not going to be said it, so I may have just put
them back up. Yeah, LongBeach is uh gonna be something I don't
really know what's expect because I said, oh, the NASCAR Contender race from
yesterday. When we recorded this onTuesday, I thought that was gonna be
(43:07):
tame because, oh, they justhave to be within this points threshold to
make it to the top. Andthen they kept crashing, so I don't
know. I it's Long Beach,someone's gonna be in the fountain. I
think that's always a risk when yougo to long beaches, you're gonna end
up in the fountain. It makesfor an entertaining broadcast, so everybody should
(43:27):
tune in. Yes, it does. And like I said, two races
to go Long Beach and then nerberRing, and then we'll know our fifteen
drivers were taken up to twenty twentyfour and all the fun that awaits us
for the twenty twenty four Porscha TackHoyer e Sports Supercup ding. For those
(43:49):
that are new to the show,anytime you get the name of a series
correct with the sponsors correctly, youget to ring a bell. But we
can't ring a bell because Kevin's dogfreaks out. I'm giving go half credit
there. He did stumble on aHoyer. But my voice in my ear
and it's that's a little bit ofyourself and Dan somebody else. Yeah,
you can't give your Yeah, Maverick, can't. Can't call yourself Maverick.
(44:20):
You're not allowed to do that.I'm calling you Maverick. Oh okay,
then that's fine. Yeah, Kevin, let's talk about MC sports and this.
Uh this is a really cool seriesfrom the Sports Global Championship. Is
that what you're talking about in theSports Global Championship. Yeah, So this
is going on in conjunction with IMSAdirectly. Uh v c O is involved
(44:43):
in a lot of the back endof it, organizing and getting things going.
Obviously we're broadcasting it. So prettyexciting. Uh Mini Championship. There's
four races coming up and runs inNovember and December. Multi class all the
GTP cars, the m GT threecars or GTD cars however you like to
call them, with some top teamsthat you'll recognize from the esports scene.
(45:09):
So should make for some great racing. I think you're going to see a
lot of promotion of it. Youknow, we've got manufacturers involved, teams
involved, ims IS involved, they'resuper excited about it. So we ran
a version of it last year.This is bigger and better. I think
we brought the broadcast in house,so Cisco, Drew, Sean and Corey
(45:31):
and everybody else involved will be busyon most of them runs. I think
three are on Sundays and ones ona Saturday if I remember the schedule correctly.
But it kicks off on November fifth. Check out our website for the
full details and whatnot. But I'mexcited for it, so it should be
cool. No, it's it's goingto be a lot of fun. Anything
we do with them, this isa lot of fun. We've we've had
(45:52):
some really cool programs with them overthe last few years, and sure looking
forward to it. Shout out toMax there on the Socide, who's instrumental
in making this happen so real,MVP. He just kind of goes with
it. Yeah, we have someand we'll have some uh probably some Imus
special event news by the time werecord our next podcast. Maybe maybe format
(46:15):
update right maybe sure? Okay,oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
oh yeah yeah that thing, ohyeah thing. Yeah. You've been like
I've been prodding you to have meetingsand things. Yeah okay, yeah,
yeah, this guy, which wayis he's over here? This guy,
(46:36):
I need more coffee. Sorry,I'm almost out, and yeah, good
times all right, Well, uh, that was the last bullet, wasn't
it. That was the last bullet. I don't know what to do now.
It says wrap up, but there'sno bullets. I don't know.
Well, thanks for listening to thisedition of the I Racing down Shift.
Don't forget to rate, review,and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and anywhere else. Chris has putthis thing for Kevin Bobbitt. Chris Leoni,
(46:58):
I am Greg West. We'll seeyou on the track, probably unless
we crash, in which case we'llsee you in Sadly, there it is.
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