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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
Chris Hall
iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Ray Bryden
Technical contributorRay grew up in Nova Scotia, which means he’s a hockey nut, but in Nova Scotia’s two non-winter months he had to find other diversions, which meant watching F1 racing on weekends with his dad and brothers. Without the resources to get started in racing, he gravitated to computer versions of racing – first Atari games like Pole Position, followed by PC racing games like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Dozens of others came and went, until Grand Prix Legends came along and he decided sim-racing was his official hobby. Years were spent enjoying this both offline and online until a few years of fatherhood took priority. When free-time reappeared he heard about iRacing and signed up in 2008 and became so involved in the service that he wrote one of the first books on the subject of sim-racing, iRacing Paddock. When not writing for inRacingNews.com, his main occupation is as a research associate with Saint-Gobain working on advanced ceramic materials.
Patrick Atherton
Contributing WriterPatrick Atherton, originally from Adelaide in the state of South Australia, currently resides just outside of Melbourne, Victoria with wife of 17 years and 3 kids. A business manager by profession, but also dabbles with blogging, cartooning and fine art, having been published both as a writer in a short-lived South Australian motorsport yearbook and later as a cartoonist in a niche trade magazine. At the age of 19 he competed in club circuit events in an Austin Healey Sprite, later indulging in sprint karts between 1994 and 2000. Following the move to the State of Victoria he raced Road Race Karts (“Superkarts” as they are known in Australia) in the popular Rotax class, competing at Phillip Island, Oran Park, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Eastern Creek, Calder Park, Sandown and Winton. It was during this time he met former Australian F2 champion and inventor of Australia’s first, and most prolific race simulator rig, Jon Crooke. This culminated in an introduction to Papyrus’ legendary NR2003 simulation, and the subsequent sim racing addiction which brought him to iRacing.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
Q and A with Sebastien Loeb
October 22nd, 2009
Conducted and provided by Sebastien Loeb’s official website.
Q. The possible adventure in F1 has come to an end today. Are you disappointed?
Sebastian Loeb: Not necessarily. I take things as they come. Anyway, there are no regrets because there was no ambition. The only regret I have is that I’d have had fun doing it. It was a fun project. But hey, that’s how it is! At least now I know. There are no more questions. It would have kept the journalists busy: they have been able to make assumptions, analyses, etc. … it will have kept them well occupied right up until today.
Q. Driving in F1 requires well above average fitness. Did you follow special training?
SL: I tried to work on my endurance and my neck. All this without knowing if it was going to happen or not. It was with a view to prepare myself seriously just in case… And then I told myself that whatever my decision, this would prepare me anyway for the racing track, especially the 908. Despite all my efforts, I could not claim to be ready. F1 is so specific! Physically, it is much harder than rallying and I know I would have had a hard time. Regarding the heart, you have to realise that the heart beats at over 180 beats per minute driving an F1 car! My physical abilities, among others, made me doubt my ability to meet this challenge.
Q. You have carried out a lot of tests, trials and races on racing tracks (endurance, Carrera Cup, F1 tests) and it was not enough for the super licence?
SL: The regulations for getting it are very precise. I do not meet any of the conditions stipulated in the regulations. So it’s logical that I failed to obtain such a license. It’s like that, it is the rule, it is the decision of the FIA. There’s no crying foul.
Q. Is it a good thing to have the outcome of this matter before the start of the rally?
SL: In fact, Citroen had urged Red Bull to have a definitive answer by Monday night just so we could be relaxed about this Grand Prix question. Initially, this was to have been announced on Sunday evening, but because of the problem with the super licence, it has dragged on until yesterday.
Q. Has it inconvenienced you during your preparation for the rally of Great Britain?
SL: Not at all. The rally has always been my priority. The participation in a Grand-Prix was a bonus; a gift that Red Bull made to me. It did not work out, it is not so serious. I will certainly have the opportunity in coming years to do such fun things again.
Q. What does Olivier Quesnel think about this matter?
SL: I do not know, we have not spoken yet. He agreed to my participation in this last Grand-Prix provided it didn’t interfere with the WRC championship. And he’s not crazy; I know he prefers that I drive a Porsche or an F1 car than a motorcycle or an ATV (all terrain vehicles or mountain bikes)! He knows that I have less risk of getting hurt! (Editor’s note: his mountain bike accident in 2007).
Q. Have you definitely crossed off the thought of participating in an F1 Grand Prix?
SL: I told myself that I will probably only have one opportunity like this in my life. That was why I accepted. There, it is gone. I did not get the super licence this time, I do not see how I could get it without preparation and the necessary tests in F1. All the more since the two championships would have been finished. Button won his world title last weekend, and the WRC title is at stake this weekend. So, my participation would not have got in the way of either championship. Finding an opportunity like that again seems very unlikely. All this put together, I do not think this opportunity will present itself again.
Q. On the other hand, if you had an offer to test in F1, would you go?
SL: If my boss lets me go, yes! It’s always a pleasure to drive an F1 car. If I have another opportunity to get back into a single-seater car, I will not pass it up.
Q. Do you realise that your possible participation in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has created an incredible buzz?
SL: Yes, I know. Anyway, you should not have expected me to get a result. It was clearly impossible. Don’t think I am saying this with false modesty. I know what I lack when I’m on a race circuit: on average, a second a lap. I imagine that in F1, there would have been a little more. I know that a World Rally Champion lining up for a Grand Prix creates a stir. I also know that everything would have been analyzed, but after all there is not so much to analyze. It was just a privilege offered to me by Red Bull, that is all!
Q. In any case, it would have been a dream for many fans…
SL: And me too! But hey, that’s how it is. Now I will focus only on Rally Great Britain with my sights set on the world title. It is just as exciting or more exciting than an F1 Grand Prix.