The #66 Entry for STUDS Racing, Inc.

Now, it's on.

Kiss NASCAR SimRacing good-bye. I have just recently purchased the premier NASCAR-themed PC game, NASCAR Racing 2003 -- yes, the old 2003 version (prior to EA Sports buying the license to all NASCAR PC and video games). This is the game in which real-life NASCAR drivers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards made famous by actually playing it prior to racing at tracks like Watkins Glens and Pocono to gain the experience needed to run with the more-experienced drivers.

This game is absolutely insane. What I really feel like this made the game the way it is due to the modifications that you can make to the game itself. Your own paint scheme? Sure! Craftsman Truck Series? Sure! IROC cars? Sure! Historic and local asphalt tracks? Sure!

But hands down -- the on-line mode is probably what makes it famous. Just a few weeks ago, I came across a web site, Sim500.com, and I could not believe how organized an on-line league could be. Sim500.com consists of three different Sierra.com servers, holding different leagues with your cars that you create through a system called the Car File Manager. After I was intrigued, or for better words hooked, I created two paint schemes with the help of Adobe Photoshop, thus creating the #66 Crutchfield/Sony Vaio Dodge, the first team in the STUDS Racing, Inc. stable.

After testing and testing through the single-player mode, I figured I was ready for the big time. I registered through the smaller of the two servers on Sim500.com -- the first one being the open server, and the second one used for the free on-line leagues sponsored by Sim500.com. The third server, the Sim500.com Featured Cup Series, is the one in which you have to pay to get into -- $10 a race. It follows your typical NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule. If you win the championship, you win $1,000. Maybe that could be in store for me later in the future, but for right now, I'm just going to "cut my teeth" running in the free league for now.

I joined a free league called "Noctural Adrenaline," which runs the Cup cars during Thursday nights. Talladega was going to be run last Thursday night and I was fired up. I even bought a headset to communicate with the other drivers on-line -- but, when I got ready to go, the Sierra.com server told me that I was not qualified to run the race. I needed ratings points. I was screwed.

So far for the past few days, I've been running on-line races, boosting my ratings. So far, I've got a 2 (out of 10) rating on speedways, a 4 on super-speedways, but I haven't run any road courses or short tracks yet. With Richmond International Raceway on the schedule for next Thursday, a short track, I'm going to need some practice!

Hopefully, I can get it to work so I can run my inaugural race, on-line -- filled with intense competition. Maybe later I'm thinking that I should run the Hooters Short Track Series, and maybe even the Midnight Thunder Series, a Craftsman Truck Series.

More updates on this later, as I start my on-line career in racing.