pitman

I'm a dad in my 40s from Germany, and I've been fascinated by racing games for as long as I can remember.

It all started back in 1988 with Grand Prix Circuit on my C64. That was my first racing game - and the beginning of a passion that has stayed with me ever since.

A few years later, my dad took things to another level. He actually built me a steering wheel and pedals so I could race Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix. And when I say "built", I really mean built: a steering wheel from a Bobby Car, pedals from a real Ford Sierra, pieces of wood, ropes and old joystick potentiometers. Somehow he put all of that together - and it worked!

While Michael Schumacher, my childhood hero, was thrilling me on TV, I spent countless hours racing on the computer. Whenever a new Geoff Crammond Grand Prix game came out, I was the first guy standing in our little local computer game store to get my copy of Grand Prix 2, 3 and 4.

Then, in 1998, Grand Prix Legends changed everything.

GPL was my first real experience with online racing, and I still have so many great memories of that time. Suddenly, I wasn't just racing against the computer anymore. There were real people out there, from all over the world, sharing the same passion and the same virtual track.

It was fantastic to experience those races together with drivers from so many different countries. Looking back, that time with GPL still holds a very special place in my sim racing memories.

Over the years I tried quite a few other racing sims - GTR, GT Legends and others - but somehow none of them kept me racing regularly for very long.

Until Assetto Corsa came along.

AC brought me back to sim racing, and eventually I stumbled across Bazza's GPL Mod and those wonderful 1967 Formula One cars. It immediately reminded me of what I had loved so much about Grand Prix Legends.

There was just one problem: I could hardly find anyone racing them online.

So I decided to do something about it.

I started a small community for people who, like me, enjoyed racing these old, raw and sometimes ridiculously difficult cars.

That little community became [THR] - THRacing.