Round and round we go

But it’s not what you think. NASCAR is not holding races without fans. Instead the organization in going the virtual reality route. There is an organization out there, iRacing, that hosts some of the most realistic online racing simulations and includes various disciplines of racing — NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar.

Sunday, FS1 aired an eNASCAR race, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, an amalgamation of active and retired NASCAR drivers from its various platforms, combined with some of the best online racers in the world, came together for a virtual race at Florida’s Homestead Speedway.

While iRacing, which is available to anybody, can be done with equipment as simple as a laptop, most racers have a relatively sophisticated set up of a steering wheel and foot pedals. Some of the NASCAR guys go all out, with $40,000 to $50,000 racing simulators meant to mimic the cockpit of a race car.

I had heard about the event in passing last week, but when I stumbled upon it while flipping through channels Sunday, I checked in to see what it was all about.

And there it was: a NASCAR race on television — with commentators and a leaderboard. And the graphics? Good enough for my wife to ask if they were real or not. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say something was a bit off, but you wouldn’t be able to place a finger on what exactly was different. That’s how good the graphics are.

NASCAR regular Denny Hamlin ended up the winner — notable because he, apparently, participated in the 100-lap race barefooted. Former NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. worked his way from near the back of the pack to take second.

While it was an interesting diversion for a couple of minutes, I’m not a huge NASCAR fan. At the end of the day, it was still a bunch of cars driving in circles.

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Chelsea Wilson, a 2017 Menlo-Atherton graduate, became the first wrestler from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York to capture a national championship when she won the 109-pound title at the National College Wrestling Association, which is essentially the national team for college club teams.

Wilson, a sophomore at RPI, posted a 6-3 decision over Allicia Mahone of Schreiner University March 14 in an area without fans.

The NCWA is a separate entity from the NCAA, which canceled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and the subsequent spring sports championships. The NCWA decided to go ahead with its national tournament despite the shutdown of most sports worldwide due to the coronavirus.

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The CCCAA, the governing body of community college athletics in the state of California, announced last Thursday that it was the canceling the rest of the spring sports season, this on the heels of the California Community College Athletic Association canceling the state basketball championship just a couple hours before the first quarterfinal game was set to tip off.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.