All News: Gale Force


Commodore’s Garage #22 – Shocks!

March 24th, 2017 by Matt Holden

  If you’ve watched enough racing, there’s a good chance you’ve heard at least one team mention that they’ve got a new “shock package”.  There’s also a good chance that team was either significantly faster or far more terrible than they were on the old shock package.  Shocks have that power in bunches, and a … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #19 – Crossweight

February 10th, 2017 by Matt Holden

  Last week we looked at bump stops, but this week we’re going to cover weight distribution, specifically crossweight.  Why would we move straight from springs to crossweight?  When we dive deeper into bump stops (specifically shims, gap, and contact timing), preloads, and shocks, crossweight is going to come into play a lot.  And I … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #18 – Implementing Bump Stops

January 27th, 2017 by Matt Holden

  Of all the things available to us in the sim-racing garage, the most confusing thing is typically the simplest component on the car:  The bump stop.  Ironically, the bump stop is just a tiny version of the one thing that almost everyone understands:  springs.  The confusion doesn’t come from its characteristics, but instead from … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #16 – Adjusting the Spring Package

December 24th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  As we approach the holidays and the close of 2016, instead of putting more information out there, I’d like to send everyone on a mission.  It’s pretty simple, and the few weeks we’ll have should be plenty of time:  Get your spring package right!  In previous racing sims, that was pretty simple, right?  iRacing’s … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #15 – Starting Spring Package

December 9th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  We now know the basic ins-and-outs of the spring components in our race car, but we need to apply that to the car and get started with our race setup.  “Where do I start?” is probably the most common question asked, and in almost every case, the answer is the spring package.  We have … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #12 – Tire Data

November 4th, 2016 by Matt Holden

Whenever we put a race car on track, be it real or virtual, we have two things that can give feedback on how the car is performing:  The driver, and the tires. Drivers are usually very literal when they communicate what the car is doing. If it’s starting to spin, they’ll say it’s loose or … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #10 – Track Bar

October 9th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  Before moving into initial setup options on our cars and how to go about getting what you need to race, we still need to cover the “bars” in the car.  Stock cars typically have a front sway bar and a rear track bar (or Panhard Rod), while road racing cars have a front and … Read the Rest »

Behind the Scenes: NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series – Into the Wild Unknown

March 23rd, 2015 by

I’ve had this article planned for a while and I’m very excited about it.  Honestly, I do not want to write a single word about the Las Vegas race.  But I will, if for no other reason than to put a period on that and go into what I actually want to discuss.  If you … Read the Rest »

Behind the Scenes: The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Powered by iRacing.com

February 24th, 2014 by

Hello.  My name is Matt Holden.  I am a student of Mechanical Engineering in Charlotte, North Carolina as well as a technical inspector/race official for US Legend Cars International at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Concord Speedway.  I have grown up in the world of NASCAR and motorsports in general, being exposed to it at an … Read the Rest »