If you ever played Papyrus’ seminal Grand Prix Legends then you’ve read his name. Rich began working as a tester on NASCAR Racing (1994) and was with Papyrus at the end. In this interview, published in 2022, we discuss his time at the legendary studio and the design of Grand Prix Legends, including initial feelings of hurt at not being asked to join iRacing.
Video game development is full of names that have made groundbreaking steps you’ve never even heard about. Shawn Nash is a behind-the-scenes pioneer responsible for SODA Off Road Racing’s incredible physics, Papyrus’ graphical advancements and iRacing’s use of laser scan data for the physical track surfaces.
This interview with RSC, published in 2021, details his early life and career, through both his own company, Papyrus, Electronic Arts, to his time at iRacing.
iRacing pushed this track out a little earlier than originally planned. Check out their trailer below:
It looks absolutely stunning!
It may be no surprise to many, but I am far more a fan of historic racing than most modern vehicles. Seeing this track and a couple of 1987 Winston Cup Cars added to the iRacing service is really exciting to me. I really do hope that this is a trend which continues…
Here is how Geoff Bodine described a lap of North Wilkesboro in the 1994 NASCAR Racing game (track addon pack) manual:
North Wilkesboro is a strange little track. The front straightaway goes downhill, so as you go into turn one you’re out against the wall. You use quite a bit of brakes going into the first corner; there is a groove that’s kinda in the middle of the track going into the corner.
Really the key to some speed at Wilkesboro is, as you go into turn one you get the car turned to go off of turn two. You’ll have to get into the throttle real quick, because going off turn two you’re going uphill. So in one, you wanna try to keep momentum through that corner, but get the car turned and get back into the throttle as soon as possible to get you up that back straightaway, because it’s all uphill, all the way to turn three!
Turn three is a lot different than turn one; the back straightaway is really one big corner, so it’s a long entry into turn three. Use brakes, but gently. The groove in turn three is real low, right against the curb. If you get off the curbing, just a few feet, it’s really rough and the car’ll just slide up the track. So you have to stay low going into turn three, and around to turn four it’s a long exit. This is where the car tends to get really loose. But like turn two, you need to get back into the throttle really quick there, but be smooth; don’t just jam it down, push the throttle down really smooth to give you that speed off the corner. As you get off turn four, you’re lookin’ downhill to turn one.
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