How a game helped 20-year-old Trevor Bayne achieve his Daytona 500 win

At the age of 20, Bayne becomes the youngest competitor ever to win the Daytona 500. His accomplishment is surely based on many factors - he seemed to have been born with a penchant for racing, having developed an interest in go-karts when he was only five years old. Before he was a teenager, he had won three professional go-kart racing World Championships.

At the age of 13, he moved onto professional race car driving and earned the title of Top Rookie at the Allison Legacy Race Series - the youngest in the series' history. At age 14, he rose to National Champion there, and shortly thereafter, he began racing in Nascar competitions. In 2009, he signed a national, season-long sponsorship contract.

So, basically, the guy can run (drive?) circles around people who have more years of experience than he's been alive. How is that possible? Well, aside from his natural talent, Bayne apparently had a bit of help from a game called iRacing.

Bayne received a subscription to iRacing, a sophisticated racing simulation which stays up-to-date with faithful recreations of all the major speedways, in 2009. He started using that to prepare for upcoming races and his performance improved.

In the 2009-2010 season, Bayne finished in 23rd place. After two years of using iRacing (combined with actual real-world experience), he won one of the most coveted races in the world. He's not the first to use it, either - up-and-comer Timmy Hill has won more than 60 races in the game, and will make his real racing debut Saturday in theNationwide Series.

Maybe we should check this game out...

[Source: Jalopnik]

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Feb 24, 2011