Luke Whitehead: Meet The 24-Hour Solo Sim Racer Who Finished 3rd

Luke Whitehead ACC N24 solo.jpg
Image credit: @LukeW_Racing on Twitter / Kunos Simulazioni
To celebrate the launch of the Nürburgring 24h pack on Assetto Corsa Competizione, publishers 505 Games teamed up with LFM for a 24 hours event. In that race, one competitor did the unthinkable.

With the start of the NLS, endurance racing season at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife has well and truly kicked off. Slowly but surely, also due to the 24H Qualifier events held on April 13 and 14, the excitement for the legendary Nürburgring 24 Hours is starting to build.

24-hour racing is a unique challenge, as you are not only battling the other competitors but also fatigue, the environment and countless other factors. Typically, one will do these races in a relay with other drivers in a team. But that is not to say there have not been a few crazy attempts at doing it solo.

Le Mans in 1950, Eddie Hall finished 8th without handing over to his teammate once. Two years later, Pierre Levegh very nearly won before he suffered an engine failure in the last hour with a four lap lead. Nowadays, solo 24-hour driving is explicitly forbidden in real endurance racing. But not in sim racing.


Luke Whitehead is a Veloce Esports ACC pro driver, having won five straight championships in the Apex Online Racing league, two LFM Pro Series titles and an SRO GT World Challenge America title. He decided to do the impossible, tackle the 24 Hours of Nürburgring launch event solo.

24 hours Solo Against Pros​

Just to put it into perspective, the drivers taking part in the event were also high-calibre ACC pros. Other Veloce drivers in the event included the likes of reigning SRO GT World Challenge Europe champion George Boothby, Gran Turismo World Series Nations Cup runner-up Angel Inostroza and content creator Jardier.

Ferrari and Williams fielded their top ACC division teams, and even streamer Marco 'Mabix' Bischoff competed with the Sprout team. The strength of field was incredibly high, and Luke knew this, so he fully expected that the best he could hope for was a top ten finish at a major stetch.


A more realistic expectation Whitehead had was getting to 16 hours of the race and just calling it and immediately resting. In fact, just four hours into the race, he began feeling drowsy.

"I had done four hours non-stop driving before in an SRO event, it was the most I had ever done. After doing that, I looked at the timer and realised there was still 20 hours left and I was like 'Oh..'.

That was when it really dawned on me that I was having to drive non-stop with very minimum mistakes because I did want a decent result. Also considering the toilet breaks, I had my first about six hours in and I knew that I had to do it relatively frequently.

Every two to three hours it would get tougher but it was once the sun rose on the second day with about eight or so hours to go, it became a lot easier. Then with two hours to go, my brain started playing tricks on me and I was almost passing out down the straights."



During the height of Whitehead's hallucinations, he recalls hearing the likes of James May and Jason Statham taunting him for missing apexes. His mother even came in and put a wet towel on his face to keep him awake in the latter part of the race. Of course, the race was not without its incidents with him being as fatigued as he was.

Luke had a few excursions and got some heavy damage at around ten hours in. The front headlights were flickering whenever he braked heavily which coupled with how exhausted he was, it was immensely off-putting and blinding, so he was forced to pit early to deal with it. But then not long after he left the pits, he had another major crash. Thankfully, that was the worst of it.

Whitehead concedes that sim racing for 24 straight hours is nowhere near as impressive as doing it in real life. But during the days where solo 24 hour racing happened, the drivers were having to take it easy and ensure car parts do not wear out. Whilst in sim racing, drivers are pushing every lap, so this added a different kind of challenge to Luke's effort.

"In ACC, you don't get damage from taking the kerbs, it hurts you in the rig since you are holding a steering wheel but if you need to hit a kerb to gain time, you will. With all these teams being as strong as they are and obviously having their swaps, they are going to be performing on all cylinders pretty much the whole race.

After 20 hours, I am not going to be performing at that level so it makes trickier to be fighting with these guys. Makes it even more surprising to me that I was even in the fight for the podium."



Finishing P3​

In spite of everything, Whitehead somehow ended up finishing third. Many average joe sim racers may have done a 24-hour event solo but, typically it does not involve a field of drivers who are at such a high level, and they may end up multiple laps down from the lead.

The spoils may have gone the way of Into The Breach who took victory and also second went the way of the Unicorns of Love team, but it was Whitehead who quite literally made the headlines for his outstanding attempt. When asked why he did it, Luke was very nonchalant with his answer.

"I mean, why not? Doing a 24 hour race solo was something I had always wanted to do, and the prospect of doing it on the Nordschleife, it is the biggest challenge. I'll stream it, will be good content, honestly I didn't think many people would care. Thought it would be a fun little gimmick, but I never expected it to become what it was.

It became so much more. It was a pleasant surprise, and a fitting tribute to my aunt's dog Feena, who passed away a couple of days before the event."


Would you attempt to do a 24 hour race solo? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below.
About author
RedLMR56
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

That should be banned. It is unhealthy, a miserable experience, and stupid. This is going to promote other top simracers to try compete to win the chad way as if it was the ultimate achievement to win a high profile 24h event all by themselves. And when people are competing for ego you know that someone is going to go beyond reason and use some kind of unhealthy substances to keep themselves awake and to keep attention.

Simracing is making a mistake if they let that legal void open that risk hurting competitors health for no reason other than publiticy and bragging rights. This is not the 1950's when top drivers drove under WW2 military stimulants effect to sharp their senses and avoid feeling tired.
 
Last edited:
Premium
That should be banned. It is unhealthy, a miserable experience, and stupid. This is going to promote other top simracers to try compete to win the chad way as if it was the ultimate achievement to win a high profile 24h event all by themselves. And when people are competing for ego you know that someone is going to go beyond reason and use some kind of unhealthy substances to keep themselves awake and to keep attention.

Simracing is making a mistake if they let that legal void open that risk hurting competitors health for no reason other than publiticy and bragging rights. This is not the 1950's when top drivers drove under WW2 military stimulants effect to sharp their senses and avoid feeling tired.
Well considering nobody other than the person doing it is getting physically hurt, what's the problem?

Newsflash, loads of people have done it. Sim Racing is a hobby for many people, so good luck enforcing it outside a private league.
 
Well considering nobody other than the person doing it is getting physically hurt, what's the problem?
This is going to promote other top simracers to try compete to win the chad way as if it was the ultimate achievement to win a high profile 24h event all by themselves.
@Luca Munro - You even quoted that yourself :O_o:

This feat was undeniably impressive but from a medical and health standpoint it's extremely unwise for anyone to consider doing this, and I agree that we don't want to be setting a precedent for this type of behaviour in such impressionable times due to social media pressure / norms in particular.

People have died before doing very long gaming stints, and if they think that's worth the risk then obviously that's their call, albeit a senseless one, but we still ideally shouldn't be shining the spotlight on this "achievement" as it would otherwise simply spread harm due to that competitive nature as @TRASGU wrote.

Not only does this article's existence seem to inadvisedly promote such harmful and unintelligent action, to then see the author be childish with the "Newsflash" response comment and then ask "what's the problem" to a rational concern is very poor journalism and unprofessional behaviour. You're writing about a subject that has cost people's lives and you think that the subject is harmless or without problem, and that you can act like a typical argumentative keyboard warrior you find all over the internet instead of showing some integrity and responsibility that your role surely should ideally require you to have. Really?

I've stood by RD and now OT in trying to contribute to articles and conversations, but if this is the mentality towards commenters and the community going forward then I'm out of here.
 
Last edited:
Blame Gran Turismo 5. In 4 you can swap the car with AI. In 5 if you want to do 24h races in A-Spec, you must do by yourself. And in 1.00 version of the game without saves.
 
Premium
Blame Gran Turismo 5. In 4 you can swap the car with AI. In 5 if you want to do 24h races in A-Spec, you must do by yourself. And in 1.00 version of the game without saves.
Oof.. without saves? I remember doing endurance races on GT5 and saving. I never attempted Nürburgring or Le Mans though.
 
"Would you attempt to do a 24 hour race solo?"

What kind of question and news article is this?!?!?! What do you expect us to answer? Only complete idiots that are tired of their lives will drive 24 hours non stop, it's just stupid. This is maybe the worst news article ever on this website. Nobody should drive 24 hours in a row and it shouldn't be promoted.
 
I remember doing something similar in SCGT many eons ago but when i came back, the game had crashed in the last few hours. I haven't tried racing alongside in Assetto yet, but i'm excited this year.
 
That should be banned. It is unhealthy, a miserable experience, and stupid. This is going to promote other top simracers to try compete to win the chad way as if it was the ultimate achievement to win a high profile 24h event all by themselves. And when people are competing for ego you know that someone is going to go beyond reason and use some kind of unhealthy substances to keep themselves awake and to keep attention.

Simracing is making a mistake if they let that legal void open that risk hurting competitors health for no reason other than publiticy and bragging rights. This is not the 1950's when top drivers drove under WW2 military stimulants effect to sharp their senses and avoid feeling tired.
Gee! yep, ban it because I don't like / agree with it. - Unbelievable.
 
Premium
"Would you attempt to do a 24 hour race solo?"

What kind of question and news article is this?!?!?! What do you expect us to answer? Only complete idiots that are tired of their lives will drive 24 hours non stop, it's just stupid. This is maybe the worst news article ever on this website. Nobody should drive 24 hours in a row and it shouldn't be promoted.
The irony
 
OverTake
Premium
Nah, I'm not a fan of this. It's certainly fun for a moment to think about someone doing it as a crazy one-off stunt but then when you give it a bit more thought, a couple of major problems become pretty clear.
Firstly, there are the obvious health implications... And given how ill-advised it is from the health perspective, it's hard to see how any sim-racing organisations could now let any more people be tempted into trying this, so yeah I expect it'll be banned for future races.
Secondly, I imagine it was banned in the real world because of the risk of a driver hurting not just themselves but their competitors (and perhaps spectators too) if they lost control through tiredness. The sim-racing equivalent of this is just taking out other drivers, but that's more than bad enough to ban it. Imagine wrecking the car of a team that has driven for 20+ hours while you're hallucinating from sleep deprivation... not gonna cover you in glory, is it? (Nor the race organisers who permitted it.) Nope, it's just plain reckless.
 
The irony
If you're calling the commenter that you're referring to stupid and / or an idiot, then you seriously owe that person an apology. Presuming OverTake has anti-hate speech / bullying / harassment policies, then that should stand for authors as well as the users.

The article was in bad enough taste, and now it's sincerely worse if abusive behaviour is being used by authors.
 
Gee! yep, ban it because I don't like / agree with it. - Unbelievable.
You cant read or you are just limited? He wrote valid concerns.
The irony
Irony of what? Of writing article about some doffus who was risking his health for a bit of internet fame? Or how some stupid kids will think "wow, what a cool guy, lets try it" and pump themselves with energy drinks and maybe some pills for better concetration...and end up in hospital.

What irony you talk about?
 
Gee! yep, ban it because I don't like / agree with it. - Unbelievable.

Everest was sold to the world like the ultimate manliness achievement (it wasn't), then rich people with more ego than brain started going there, then it exploded in popularity among almost regular people. Now it is a just a item in a bucket list of things to do in life. A mountain full of under-prepared people that uses the dead corpses of mostly other under-prepared people that died there before as navigational waypoints that some people take selfies with for likes.

This isn't about freedom nor testing the human limits, at the end of the day, being honest it is only a fancy glorified game played on a fancy chair. It should be a pleasant activity that brings You joy, racing without sleep 24h it is a miserable experience.

And for what?, to brag in a niche youtube video that nobody is going to remember ever again after he has swipped twice in their smartphone?, to brag here?, it is meaningless. Some people are always going to look for something to bring down your achievement. Just today I saw a youtube video in where a female police officer saved the life of one old man that had his wheel chair blocked in a level crossing, not even with an officer risking her life to save that man in the very last moment they could universaly praise her, people found reasons to bring her down anyways.

The reason I'm against it isn't racing 24h without sleep isn't because I don't like the concept of someone pushing the human limits in itself, not because I hate personal freedom of choice. It is because it promotes other people doing the same stupid thing without any medical supervision. And once the trend starts people are going to be tempted to risk their own health consuming all kinds of nasty stuff to secure their goal.

In the 50s, drivers where consuming amphetamines and other substances developed in WW2 like pervitin, benzedrine and speed to stay more alert and for inhibition of fear. In WW2 the soldiers were administrated those substances capable of keeping them awake, aggressive, and fearless for days, but it provoked allucinations, over-agresiveness, side effects, and addictions.

This is the simracing that You refuse to put a limit on because probably You perceive it as authoritarism?. Online races with some drivers risking their health or getting addicted, secretly drugged in order to chase their desired clout/ego/likes/views?.

Do you think that it is going to be fair for the drivers that completed the race without the aid of drugs?. Do You think that even without consuming substances, being sleepless it is something healthy that should be promoted?.

Nothing of this has already happened as it is something new. But people nowadays are totally over the top for views, clout and likes. Someone is going to step over the line, now or in 20 years from now and die on a live stream in front of thousands of kids. And then all simracers are going to be demonized by media and associated with junkies for the regular simracing ignorant people.

I don't want to be associated with Lance Armstrong, nor I want some kid hurting himself, nor having simracing becoming universally ridiculed and ostracized as it was when I started doing competitive simracing back in the late 90's.
 
Last edited:
It's absolutely about freedom and pushing personal limits. It's not something I would be interested, but more power to this guy for achieving a goal he set for himself. Risk is everywhere in life. It might be physical, financial, or emotional, but it's the responsibility of the individual to decide whether it's worth doing. Most virtue signalers and nanny statists have enough trouble living their own lives, they shouldn't be telling others what they can or cannot do when it comes to personal risk.
 
It's absolutely about freedom and pushing personal limits.
If the subject matter is absolutely (as in 100%) about those two elements and nothing else whatsoever, then why are some of us mentioning other elements that are just as pertinent? Have other people somehow formed very similar concerns over an imaginary factor that apparently should be dismissed or disregarded just because your thought process is so stunted that you can't see beyond your beliefs?

As others have already stated, there are also other elements of concerns (after the health fact) being of not wanting to start with trend setting for this behaviour, and for the quite realistic chance of harm or detriment to others who are taking a more traditional and sensible approach. Us "virtue signalers" can see / predict these concerns a mile away while it's people who like you can't understand the matter when it's literally spelled out right in front of you. Disregarding others in a group event is simply plain short-sighted and selfish, and if anyone can't recognise and respect that and still are ok with being a significantly higher risk of harm to others just to fulfil their ego or agenda, then they shouldn't be allowed to participate in that group sport.

You'll likely still disagree because that's what people who can't fully understand a situation from all perspectives and beyond their own opinions would say. Sure, harm or kill yourself doing something you enjoy, I really wouldn't lose any sleep over that, but if your actions have a negative impact on others and you don't care about that, then that's just a poor attitude to take in simracing and in life.
 
Last edited:
Remember when SuperGT did a 200 lab Nordschleife solo event for charity? - Let's ban everthing shall we.

Charity as you might surely know my friend is something completely different. And who knows - I like your humor btw - why you're talking about banning everything, the only thing I said is that this man in the article here gets no respect from me for his 'achievement', fishing for followers or whatever his motivation was. But surely everyone has the freedom to do so, we are all free to harm ourselves.
 

Article information

Author
Luca Munro
Article read time
4 min read
Views
6,593
Comments
55
Last update

What are you racing on?

  • Racing rig

  • Motion rig

  • Pull-out-rig

  • Wheel stand

  • My desktop

  • Something else


Results are only viewable after voting.
Back
Top