Hello To The Community

**Lmp900** 26/3/2014, 19:51

Hello everyone,

My name is Matthew Cavanaugh and I reside near Chicago, Illinois, USA. I am 38 years old and have been computer sim racing since the late 1990’s. My journey into sim racing began with the classic simulator Sports Car GT. In the late 90’s I played this game nonstop and was a longtime member of the speedsims community of racers and modders. Looking back now, this really seemed like the golden age of sim racing. Over the years I eventually graduated into the newer EA racing games such as F1 2001, 2002, and F1 Challenge. It was during this time that I found racesimcentral as the best place to meet fellow racers, modders, and find technical support. I remember playing RSDGs sportcar mods that were very popular at the time. In more recent days, I play GTR2 and rFactor endurance mods almost exclusively. I do however occasionally like to run single make sprint races with Simbin’s Race On games. In the future, I do see myself investing in the newer generation of sim racers such as rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa.

I have learned about the EEC team and forums through its current members. From what I have gathered from the forum topics so far, it seems like a closely knit community that cares deeply for its members and modding practices.

Previously my work schedule did not allow me to have enough spare time to become dedicated to an online racing schedule. This resulted in joining public online races with rFactor that usually ended up in poor crash fest style racing. Now that I have more predictable work days, I would like to get back into serious online racing with competitors that have the same desire for competitive racing.

Unfortunately, I do not have any modding or skinning capabilities. I really wish that I did have these abilities as I would love to be able to give back to the sim community by helping with modding projects. While I may not have these skills to help with projects, I make it a priority to help test new mod releases, skins, and tracks and give constructive feedback when possible to help advance the community and its modding. I also give back as much as possible through monetary donations that help offset the costs of hosting the community.

I realize that some modding projects are not made public. If this is the wish of the authors of the mod, then I will respect that decision.

In the over 15 year period that I have been involved in the sim racing community, I have never joined a community to simply download a few items and leave. If this behavior was how everyone approached the sim racing world, there would be no sense of community and the modding underground would probably cease to exist. I will be as active as I can through conversations, feedback, and support for the site.

When I am not sim racing or watching racing broadcasts I spend my spare time long distance running and playing my drum set. I have found that running relieves the stress of the lengthy hours spent with my retailing job.

I am a real life racing fan as well. I follow the WEC, ELMS, BTCC, and F1. I used to be an avid ALMS fan and have attended many of their events at Road America, Mid Ohio, and Petite Lemans. Currently I am on the fence with the new TUSC series and will have to wait to see how the series progresses (if it does at all!) From what I have seen in the first two rounds, I will not be forking out any money to travel to their races.

I look forward to getting to know the community.