By Dane Simpson
Each week we take a chance to catch up with one of the up-and-coming Developmental Series drivers and find out a bit more about who we get to race with Tuesday nights.
Ashley currently sits in 2nd place in the Developmental Series after two races only 21 points back of 1st.
Dane – How long have you been on iracing? Or other sims?
Dylan – I’ve been on Iracing since maybe around last August. In terms of other sims its been a long time. It started with the Gran Turismo series up until I bought Myself an Xbox One. After that I discovered the Project Cars franchise and Assetto Corsa, bought my first wheel, and once I finished building my first PC, migrated over to Iracing.
Dane – What is your preferred type of racing, or do you have a specialty? What type of racing do you generally watch?
Dylan – I typically lean more towards NASCAR’s style of racing. Asphalt / concrete ovals and such things like that. I watch NASCAR religiously. It’s what I look forward to the most coming home from work on a Sunday. Sometimes I’ll tune into events such as the Daytona 24hr or Formula 1 races.
Dane – The D series schedule is all over the place, what races are you looking forward to/ wary of.
Dylan – I’ve been preparing myself for the Dallara DW12’s at the Daytona Road Course. While I don’t drive that vehicle that often, the Daytona Road Course is my best road course by far. With 3-4 wins there in a row in the Arca Menards series, I feel confident in learning how the Dallara drives and would set a goal of a 3rd place finish or better. I’m not overly excited for any of the races on Rally Cross courses. Seeing how the last dirt race went, I feel there’s going to be a lot of spins, and a lot of weaving through lap down cars.
Dane – Follow up to that… is there a premiere race you want to for sure qualify for, something you think would be super fun.
Dylan – The V8 Supercars at Daytona sound like they could be a blast. I’m sure it’s going to be one hell of a race.
Dane – Is there something you’re looking to take away from the series in terms of development?
Dylan – Something that I’ve noticed in this series is the diversity of Talent. You have some drivers that are great on dirt, some great on road courses, and some are great on asphalt ovals. You’re being paired up with people who you probably wouldn’t be paired up against in an official lobby, so there’s a little bit of a skill gap. If you can learn what they’re doing and try to follow their line through a corner and just experiment with their style of racing, you might learn a thing or two.
Dane – Prediction time! If you’re going to win a race this season, what one is it going to be, where do you think you will land by seasons end?
Dylan – I go into every race thinking I at least have a shot. We’ve been towards the front every race so far but with the first race ending in my wheel disconnecting and being taken out from the lead by a lapped car in the second race, we’ve shown we can be at the front of the pack. We just got to be able to put the races together and have a little bit of luck to have everything go smoothly. If we don’t win at least 1-2 races I’ll be a little disappointed, but we’ll take the finishes we get, and learn from it none the less
