What Happened In My First Spa 24 Hour? 

James, you will not have the ABS

This is just EPIC James!

James from sim racing in your house to racing the 24 hours of Spa is such a huge achievement can’t wait to be seeing you fighting at the top

This is so good. My perspective: 1) you finished the stint without binning it. As a 24 Hours of Spa rookie, that’s impressive, even without the other issues. 2) can’t believe you managed to keep it on track without ABS. Most people would have binned it at that point. 3) first race at night. 4) ill-fitting safety equipment. 5) intense discomfort due to the ear piece. 6) feeling sick AF. 7) still managed respectable Silver lap times The deck was stacked against you. All things considered, i think it was a strong strong drive. You just raced in the 24 Hours of Spa. That’s incredible.

Insane to see you racing again!

I miss onboard stories from David Perel, so I love that you uploaded this, I really dig it. This reminds me when I first tried Forza 7, there was a GT3 night event on Sebring. At that time, it was so cool, I felt like I am in real event like this (not even close lol). As for the no ABS, now I finally know, what effect flat spotted tires really have, great content. But you know what!? I am going to train no ABS for you, just so you know you are not alone, if you decide to do so aswell.🤘

Holy shit this is quality content. You acquitted yourself amazingly well and I certainly hope this opportunity leads to others. Great job - your talent is obvious for all to see. Oh and that "twonk!" of the number board during pit entry @19:00 was somehow hilarious to me, dunno why.

Great insight, especially flat stop impact. And I found it interesting to see just how much the cockpit lights up with the snappers at La source. Something we don’t have in sim racing

James I'm so happy for you man. Fuck yes. Thank you for sharing

Amazing lad! Imagine all the little stories from each car, like the ear piece issue. Such incredible insights, thank you! You did really well to stay in the car to the end of the stint. Don't worry about the dark thoughts, just acknowledge them and let them help you move forward to smashing it next time. Great job hope you're gold class before you know it!

James, just think about how fortunated you are. You are dreaming the dream and there is more to come. It was your first experience in the 24hours and you did great. Those small issues are normal, you are not there yet to not see it as a problem. I have sometimes the same feeling in a double stint during the 25 hours Spa VW Fun Cup, like, please let the stint end as I am cooked by whatever reason. I have had fatigue, pain in the knee, sickness....we all have those days at our daily work. We don't give up, we continue. That's life. Same for being a racing driver. There will be good and bad days but you have the skill so never give up. Persue that dream and live it. 💪🏼👍🏻💪🏼👍🏻💪🏼👍🏻💪🏼👍🏻💪🏼👍🏻

"Mental" is the right word, haha. Thank you for sharing. 😎

GOAT SHIT RIGHT HERE

Keep going dude, you're an inspiration, genuinely. Best of luck in the future.

You did a good job, I was cheering for you guys up until the retirement! Better luck next year!

This is one of the most fascinating and insightful motorsport videos I've seen. Amazing to hear such detail and honesty from a clearly very articulate and talented racing driver. Look forward to seeing more sim and real world racing content!

Absolutely mad watching your car going around and knowing you were in it, sucked the car retired in the end. Taking part in the Spa 24H is massive ,can't wait to see what are next opportunities you get for IRL racing!

Absolutely gutted you didn't get through the race, but man did I enjoy keeping an eye on your car over the race and through your stint. Awesome way to represent the sim racing community! On top of that winning the ACC race like it was nothing 👌 Hoping you get more race time in 2023, love following every race you do 🙌

that part you said about "do i still want to be a racing driver" there's tons of people in different professions racing military etc at one point or another felt they wanted to quit but found that determination even when things went to shit

you my friend are living the dream i have allways loved racing since i was a young lad and love to race on the sim and i think ever sim racer drfeam to race for real congrats bro i wish u the best of luck in ur racing life

It is absolutely incredible you're sharing this with us, ty James!

James - The only thing ever stopping you is YOU. Don't be hard on yourelf, you manifest bad energy which doesn't do your psychosomatics anygood. Listen, if you're NOT prepared to fail YOU will never SUCCEED. Keep BELIEVING James!

Please keep videos like this one coming! Great to see how you experienced your race!

considering your level of experience, you did yourself proud. Of course the pros would be quicker. Guys like Marciello, Estre and Gounon are experienced, world class drivers. I think you have the natural talent to get close to them over time, you deserve a full time seat somewhere

holy shit the bentley caught me off guard. What a car. Shame about the sickness dude its so common, i've often wondered how often drivers do actually suffer with it. Was awesome to see you get that opportunity though and even though it didn't go as planned i'm sure there is more to come and i'm looking forward to it. Lets go

Great watch.. no need to think they are excuses mate... you speak your mind on your 1st experience of something that most can only dream of or play on sims :) The talk thro insight is unique from what ive seen on the web so far with the enduro races. TY being slightly ill will drain energy faster & the mind wont be as sharp, the lack of ABS would unsettle most super sim racers/amateur/semi pro - at night in the 1st Spa24.. the vibrations sounded & looked awful mate, how did they take so long to tell you how to reset it ? No accidents, just the DT for limits the once ? Overall its probably a decent stint for a 1st run in at the deep end like you said.. came out the other side.. keep knocking on the doors mate, its good to see you race

Super content. Great to see and hear all you could share. Keep going mate! You’ve got this 💪🏼. Roll on Le Mans podium 🤘🏻

good god.. while most of us simracing plebs would just end up in a wall once forgeting the abs was OFF.. you took it like a true champ and at least managed till the end of the lap to almost give me a heart attack... but u saved it. The wobble on the cam, on the next lap was just hilarious. Almost pressed C on my keyboard

Awesome to see you back on-track irl. After watching this I just had to do a night-stint in ACC myself 💪

So glad to see you in a car again! Thaks for sharing your journey with us. It's fun to watch! Well done btw! Can't believe your first lap out you had no abs!!!! On the plus side, it'll be hard to have worse first lap out than that from now on hahaha

Great vid, we need more onboard commentaries. You'll get that seat!

Makes me happy seeing you race! A great abassador for simracing

GG James. hats off to you, I raced in national capacity so I can kidna relate to this sort of achievement even driving a lap let alone competing at Spa24H.

Thanks a lot James! This indepth explenation & a stint & feelings of a driver is quite rare! Thx a lot for sharing 🤩🤩

Epic experience, James you wanna do Le Mans next year if it's possible?

maybe another tip / improvement is yourself conditionally wise. i know kevin estre, vant hoor etc are super fit, to keep focus better etc

Been waiting for this! Living vicariously through you bro! I do it on the sim, and really enjoy your real life behind the scenes. And of course i drive Mclaren 💪🍻

Thank you for your perspective and honesty James - for the average sim racer to hear this makes me want to get better.

Contratulations man, you did a great job. I was thinking the other day about the random events missing in sim racing like the ABS issue you had and so on. Of couse the phisical part is going to be always missing. But the talking to engineer, the random problems, those aspects would be great to have them in ACC, or at least the like top noch simulators has, like a panel where someone can test you activating some issues. Congrats again! And of course thanks for sharing and being that honest about the journey, it is very helpful for the sim racing community. 🏆

I had no idea you and Jarno had the same video editor. Now we need Jake Binham and James Baldwin shenanigans.

Experience is really important, because it boosts your confidence.

You bring up a great point about sim racing not preparing you for this. This feels like EXACTLY the kind of thing a sim game would be able to simulate when there's a bit of front damage.

You did fantastic. You cannot help it going out with a car with no ABS in a car that needs ABS. You didn't flat spot you didn't wreck. All you can do. I really hope you get full season rides.

Good to see your healthy and well james

This is the type of experience that make us better! I never raced (just simarcing), but I had a similar experience in my first time ever performing in front of thousands of people. Everyone was expecting the best of me... I prepared myself a lot for that day...and when the day arrived, and I started playing, I just sucked! I was whishing it to end...and it was supposed to be the performance of my life! :\ At the end, I was absolutely devastated...that feeling that I could delivered so much, but I wasted it all! The next year, I had the opportunity to go to the same stage...my mentality was so different, I was prepared, but more than that, I let myself to take calculated risks! MAN...that day was redemption day! I felt alive...truly alive! I realized that we learn a lot more with the defeats rather than the victories. From you video, I can say that you could've nailed it, it was just a sh*tstorm of factors that you couldn't overcome, the mentality takes a huge role in our performances! Don't let yourself down on the first mistake, just keep yourself on track (literally in you case) and accept that mistakes does happen, others will do them too, you can recover from that.

Ballerinas are tougher than Race drivers James. Its a baptism of challenges, which is good, its like three races worth of issues in one race.

Lots to learn from. Thank you for providing that full story. I seen the 2022 results? I could be wrong. But you had seat time issue. IN MY OWEN OPINION. THAT WOULD HAVE CERY VALUABLE TO YOU FOR THIS RACE. sorry for the caps lock. Goid Luke next week.

You had the chance to say "Bono my ABS is gone"

Hopefully you can do the Silver Cup for Europe GT3s to get more used to everything

Thanks for the insight James, this is great! So very happy to see you back in a physical car again!

This is flipping awesome. What an experience it must be to race these cars in an event like this.

You did something that most of us dream of, well done James, I wish you luck for the future. 👏

18:59 'You've got a new message'

Well done James you did the SIM racing community proud including #beACC! Just one question, if you were to look back what would you say, sim racing has assisted you in real world racing? Let's hope you get a permanent drive in 2023. Keep up the excellent content! Will deffo follow you on Twitch.

I watched some of your stints live. Amazing racing man. Very well done. I sincerely hope you get more irl opportunities. You've the talent to back it up.

"You will not have ABS." "You will not have the drink."

Love this insight and your views 👏 Onboards look ace too !

Its so cool to see you back in real racing ❤️❤️❤️

remember seeing you go deep in the bus stop from the Eau Rouge grandstand! nice to know why! hope to see you out again on track soon!

Doing sim racing proud ✌

you are an amazing driver james, rooting for you all the way

couldve used the grass to helps keep the tires cool

fucking sick seeing you out there in person. That mclaren looked so beautiful charging around that track, had a big smile everytime you hopped into my lens. Hope to see you out on a track again one day

I hope you keep on racing

What a fantastic Gut wrenchingly honest video dude. It's like real life drive to survive.

Very insightful! Thank you for the Video!

Love this!

James, what happend to that flying quali lap at spa mate that you were 2-3 10ths up in sector 1 and purple? You did great bro x

This is so good. But i have a question for u. Are there any sim racing brakes / pedals that recreate how the brake padel feels in the mclaren 720s gt3?

Mags. Keep the faith and keep fit for it dude!!

Good to see you back in a race car😊

This was so entertaining! Awesome post

This is Awesome - Well done mate!

Sounds like you had an awakening. The mind is processed new info. Racing is a very psychological, when begins the wheel you have to deal with yourself and believe in yourself.

damn somehow I guessed maybe it's faulty clear button but so unlucky timing, even though so well done!

This is so interesting! I wish I was awake during your stints haha

full respect James i think you did great analysis honest about not feeling great in the car etc yes if you are thinking about something else other than the next corner it always loses you time but i'm proud of you how far you have come in your racing in real and sim racing since we raced together. could have been worse it's spa it looked good conditions did you get much wet driving ? but to drive spa in anything you can look back at this in the future as a great experience. i remember a 24 hour race at daytona ( that's daytona milton keynes not daytona usa 🤣 ) 1 of our drivers begging to come in bursting for a piss he extended his stint a bit trying to get to better fuel stop but i remember thinking NO piss yourself would be better but anyway great video James

Don't worry, all pros will tell you it's important to have a really deep bag of excuses for when you didn't make pole, aren't setting purple sector after purple sector, didn't end up on the podium, didn't win the race or when you ended up on the cars roof in the gravel. :D

if you dont believe you dont atchieve

so glad ur racing irl again!

1:32 Wait he really did back to the pits irl

i was there man, just missed the crash, i was on the start finish straight walking towards blancimont when it happend

Very impressive sod's law applied but next time you will be the star you have the potential to be. First time is always the hardest real life can be so much more challenging for a million reasons.

you did great man don't beat yourself up over it, were all excited to see you in the seat again hopefully with a more enjoyable experience for yourself

cool video... gave me two thoughts: first that I am built for endurance racing, not sprints. Second that it would be really smart if Iracing and ACC (LFM) modeled the driver class system whether like IMSA or SRO. That way you could have similarly fielded events with cars such as all GT3, but allow for competition within ranking. For example in iracing have an endurance event with Pro, Pro AM, AM teams or drivers which would allow for drivers to gain points in class and overall. Much in the way you recognized that as a silver driver you are racing the whole field, but really mainly competing in class. IRACING sort of already does this with the IMSA events, but would like to see some form of an extension of that. Would be great to run even a 2 hour race in an all GT3 field... but a mix of classes based upon irating or similar, and points scored upon performance in class.

to be honest, you should try the 24h of nurburgring, way more of a challenge

Stay focused stay calm follow your routine. Basics 100% yes?

When you want do something (Your Dream). No one knows how they or their body will react to that pressure😮. Until you go through it.

You need a debriefing. To process the information. You survived.

Ah yes your first spa 24h, man your nervous but hella excited and the first thing you hear going along the kemmel straight is your not going to have abs. 😵

Was awesome to be at the race and see you race in real life!

Feeling ill when driving is so bad ggs to you

10:00 I wish there was a sim that was able to truly represent the endurance aspect of races like this. None seem to really care that much.

You mentioned watching some of the onboard video from some of the pro racing drivers gave you insight to different lines at Spa Francorchamps. Would you be willing to help me by sharing which drivers you watched

stop shooting yourself down James! look where you.ve came from,Chin up and good effort.

- you will not have ABS... -i guess it's gte/gtlm preparation

You mentioned you guys didn’t finish!? What happened?

Happy to see you in a car again m8

Dang acc got a major graphic update

Your driving isn’t that bad which you have have actually proven this race and in your past. If only your mentality was as good as your racing. The fact that you have spoken about it yourself is a good sign that you are trying to improve, but you still have to learn a lot as you yourself know. Seeing this from the perspective of your team its hard to see you working for better teams. Yes the skill to drive might be there but messing up the stints than whining later on the radio isn’t a good impression on anyone. You are still a rookie that is true but you could be better if you check yourself more. The world doesn’t care what your problems are, only results mater. Take care mate.