Interview—Saoirse Fitzpatrick

Saorise Fitzpatrick is a delightful human being and the 2023 winner of Screen to Speed and we are posting this conversation with her on the eve of the Screen to Speed Holiday Invitational, a very special event where star real life racecar drivers compete with sim racers.

Saorise won the Sim Racing competition first,  then got to race for real at the Las Vegas speedway in a Porsche with Sabre Cook of Kelly Moss there for support.  Before driving the Porsche, she had only ever driver her mom's car in the parking garage.  Saorise describes it all here for us and for those not yet familiar with sim racing, she gives a good overview of what it is, and how it feels to be a virtual racer and then become a real racer on a real track.

Follow her on Instagram and TwitterX.

Watch the conversation @moveusforward https://www.youtube.com/@moveusforward

Watch the documentary of the first event.

This Episode goes along with a post on Forever Motoring called Simulated Motoring.

And it is broadcast in honor of the Screen to Speed Holidays Invitational, a special event that pits real female race care drivers racing against female sim racers. 

More at www.screentospeed.com. 

The Screen to Speed Holiday Invitational: https://www.screentospeed.com/

iracing: https://www.iracing.com/

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The Screen to Speed Holiday Invitational is this Sunday, Dec 16th starting at 8:00pm GMT. 

What is special about this event? It has real female race care drivers racing against female sim racers like Saoirise. 

The public can also take part by sponsoring the athletes. The funding collected will be split among the participants and 10% will go to 2 organizations that promotes women in motorsports (WIMNA and Shift Up Now). 

 
People can already sponsor via the website at www.screentospeed.com or during the stream. 

The stream will be on www.twitch.tv/initesports and on www.youtube.com/initesports

Saoirse Fitzpatrick: Barista, SIM Racer, Winner of Screen to Speed

[00:00:00]

Andrea Hiott: SO I always start with a similar question and that's tell me about an experience in your life when you remember being moved.

Saoirse: Um, I'm mainly known for sim racing, um, at the moment. I think a moving moment, really, in my career as a SIM racer, anyway, was being asked to come on as an official driver for Prismatic Motorsports, the team I still race for now.

Andrea Hiott: Um How did that happen? First, what's Prismatic Motorsports for people who've

Saoirse: never heard of it? Prismatic Motorsports is a sim racing team by and for trans people. It was set up, I think, a little over two years ago.

Andrea Hiott: Is it

Saoirse: international or is it? Yeah, it is. We have drivers from all over. Three of the ownership board are in the States. One is in England. I'm the only Irish driver, but we have a number of drivers throughout Europe, England, like just the UK generally and the U S but we're a team. Of and by trans people, hoping to carve out the [00:01:00] spot that we deserve within both SIM racing and ideally motorsports as a whole as to represent ourselves and put ourselves forward really.

Andrea Hiott: Is there a, a history of trans people in motorsports? Where has it been difficult or?

Saoirse: Honestly, I'm not that sure. I know there was, A trans woman that was racing in England, I think, in the 40s, but I don't remember her name. And then, obviously, Charlie Martin is racing today. But, otherwise, I don't actually know of any trans people historically that have raced.

Andrea Hiott: But, so, that's a pretty good community there at Prismatic, it seems.

Saoirse: Yeah, everyone is very supportive of each other, hoping to, like, lift each other up and that kind of thing. But how it happened was, um, early on in the history of Prismatic, they ran a charity racing series, to raise money for a UK charity called Mermaids.

 aNd, like, I had, like, that had been brought to my attention and I joined the community, and started racing [00:02:00] in that series, and must have impressed enough, in my first Appearance in the series that I was offered like an official part of the team basically as a driver.

Andrea Hiott: Oh, wow That's how I was quick for people who don't know what you're talking about and think you mean like driving in real out on The on the track. Oh, yeah. No, what does this mean? What does it mean to start racing?

Saoirse: So For those that don't know, um, sim racing is base principles, basically a computer program that is designed to replicate real life, physics of how cars behave, uh, like on track to under certain load with aerodynamic, uh, forces and tire modeling and this kind of thing.

Think basically the simulators that the big teams in like formula one have, or like just the simulators that teams have. In their, homebases, but like multiplayer and can be run on a home PC, which [00:03:00] has like peripheral, peripherals and things such as like wheels, wheelbases, you have a whole rig, huh?

Yeah, I have a whole rig, courtesy of, uh, having won screen to speed. Oh yeah?

Andrea Hiott: What were you using before?

Saoirse: Um, I actually had, a, wheel clamped to my desk with, um, pedals like, a D. Y. I. kind of thing? Yeah, with, um, Oh, that's cool.

With, um, my pedals underneath the desk braced against, Two pieces of wood that were, like, held down by a guitar amplifier. Oh,

Andrea Hiott: that's awesome. Maybe it was even somehow, like, the secret. The reason you were so far ahead.

Saoirse: I don't know. I think it was probably actually a handicap, um,

Andrea Hiott: because yeah, it could also be like a handicap bike that you had to overcome that made you better or in general you were better once you got a rig.

Saoirse: I mean, I haven't had the rig very long. I haven't done much racing, um, with the rig yet, so I don't know if it's made me better or not. But

Andrea Hiott: You were already really interested in

Saoirse: this? [00:04:00] Yeah. So, prior to, getting involved in some, uh, Prismatic, because we mainly race on iRacing, I should have said that, iRacing is, uh, is one of the more popular, anyway, multiplayer, um, racing simulators, but I'd already been, like, active on an iRacing, and before that on, like, Assetto Corsa and the Dirt Rally games, and before that even on the Formula 1 games, and even before that, Uh, Need for Speed Most Wanted, the original 2005 game, it was like one of my core childhood memories. Yeah, wow,

Andrea Hiott: 2005, where you were like really a little kid,

Saoirse: right? Um, I mean, I pro I was probably playing it around 8, so in like 2008, 2009, but Still, like, on a PlayStation 2, and we never had a memory card for it, so I never finished the game. I always just played over the same levels over and over again.

Andrea Hiott: Do you remember, your first video game? Not necessarily racing,

Saoirse: It was probably a PlayStation 2 game. I think we inherited that [00:05:00] PlayStation 2 from one of my cousins.

So I got a bunch of games. So there's like the Need for Speed Most Wanted, there were like the old Medal of Honor games, uh, from the PlayStation 2, um, Simpsons Hit and Run, which I didn't play very much. I think the CD might actually have been damaged.

Andrea Hiott: Come on, There must be some favorite from when you were a kid or something.

Saoirse: Favorite? It was definitely, actually it was definitely Need for Speed and Most Wanted. That's the one that I cherish the most in my memory. That was the start of it anyway.

Andrea Hiott: Okay, okay. And where are you? Where did, for people who, I mean, where did you grow up?

Saoirse: I'm from Dublin in Ireland. I've lived here for all of my 22 long, tiring years.

Andrea Hiott: Tiring because you work so hard. You just got off work, right? We should tell everyone

Saoirse: we've had a long day. I did just get off work. I finished work, well actually I finished work three hours ago and I got home an hour ago. And that's

Andrea Hiott: because you had to take the bus. And why did you have to take the bus?

Saoirse: Uh, I had to take the bus [00:06:00] because my motorcycle got stolen. I also ride a motorcycle. We're learning a lot of things about me in quick succession. We are, very quick. , but my motorcycle was a green Kawasaki Zed 400. And when did

Andrea Hiott: you get this? Because as I understand it, you had only just gotten your motorcycle license, right?

Saoirse: I got it in February, but um, Irish motorcycle law, like licensing laws are kind of weird. Oh, okay.

Andrea Hiott: Weird like they don't care? They just let you

Saoirse: drive or weird? Oh, no, no. Weird like, uh, when you're 16, you can get a 125cc bike. When you're 18, you can go straight to a bike with up to around about 50 horsepower.

So that's why I have a 400, I had a 400cc. And then after you're 24, you can, like, you can just get whatever you want. But you have to, like, also do specific rider training for all those licenses.

Andrea Hiott: So, why do you ride a motorcycle? Do you also, because I feel like someone said in one of the videos or maybe it was Steffi or [00:07:00] something that you don't have a driver's license, but you're a race car driver. Then you went to the motorcycle. So can you clarify for me?

Saoirse: Okay. So the whole thing of it is I have a car learner's permit. And a motorcycle license permit. Okay, so you do have the permits, okay. Yes, but I'm only qualified at the moment to ride a motorcycle. Okay. I haven't done any like car driver training, so I can't actually drive a car.

And I can't like go out and do my test tomorrow and if I pass it I can get a full license. Oh, okay. Um, 'cause in Ireland you have to do 12 one hour, uh, like teaching sessions, like practical teaching in a car with another instructor. Mm-Hmm. . Um, you have to do 12. It's called essential driver training or something.

Andrea Hiott: Let's go back to sim for a minute because the SIM racing you were really good at. You got done prismatic. Prismatic.

Saoirse: Prismatic. Yeah, I've been within the community of Prismatic for about 18 months, but I've probably been an [00:08:00] official driver for a roundabouts that long, maybe just a year or so. Um, but as a team, most of what we do really like most of what we compete in is endurance series.

So we've done the last two seasons, maybe three, I have lost count of the Uh, a series run by an organization called FTOR, uh, they do an endurance, uh, GT endurance series, uh, where last season anyway, it was GT3s, GT4s, and touring cars on iRacing, um, so we do that a lot, we do the occasional, iRacing official event, so we've done the Daytona 24 two years in a row. I did Petite LeMans last year. As well, we did, Jimmy Robbins 23 Hours of Zolder, charity race. And I helped organize the teams for that, which was interesting.

Andrea Hiott: You're talking about all these different kinds of races and different races in different cars and so on.

Does it really, is it really simulated and feel [00:09:00] like that? Um, how would you like for someone who's never seen it, how would you give them like a quick idea of what you mean ? Does it feel, is it similar to real life?

Saoirse: Yeah, like the kind of variation of things that you can do in sim racing is very similar to what you can do in real life.

Really the only, restriction is what the software you're using can do. Like if there's content for, say, , Formula Vs. On iRacing we have Formula Vs. Which is great because Formula Vs race everywhere. And if like, you really want to try Formula Vs out, you can get iRacing and download the Formula V.

Turn some laps or, um, you can do oval racing on iRacing. You can do a dirt oval, dirt road, like Raleigh cross. There's a hill climb course on iRacing, um, or as well with most of my experiences in sprint races, so like one hour and shorter or endurance races. So like four ish hours and more. Ranging from open wheelers to touring cars to [00:10:00] GT cars like the GT3s and GT4s or prototypes.

Kind of the sky is the limit. And if you have a bit of, like coding knowledge, you can create mods for Assetto Corsa and, or Factor 2 and everything, and everything really. So the sky's kind of the limit. Yeah,

Andrea Hiott: it's kind of wonderful how much creativity there is in it even though it sounds, feels like it's all in someone's virtual world or something. It's actually really hands on and very creative. So we have to talk about Screen to Speed a little bit, I feel like there was kind of an explosion in your life or something like this wasn't too long ago that you signed with, with prismatic and then pretty soon after you were.

Actually racing a real car. So let's how can you help us understand this?

Saoirse: Um, I mean have you even understood it yet? No, i'm still kind of trying to figure out like how did I go from timid email of hey guys Can I join the community to? Wow, okay, I'm like [00:11:00] almost the face of the team, really.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, exactly

Saoirse: that's really something. Yeah. Um, I guess kind of how throughout last year it went was, , like, Taking part in an endurance series, doing like the 23, Petit Le Mans, doing stuff on my own on iRacing, um, just slowly getting better and getting better, just by racing more and more and more,

till in, like early ish December, someone in Prismatic, I'll actually name drop her, Olivia Hayward, she, uh, brought to people's attention, like, hey, there's this time trial going on for, what we would then find out to be Screen to Speed and learn more about it, but initially, anyway, it was like, oh, hey, there's this time attack going on with, This whole competition element of it and prizes and like the kind of scale of it Didn't seem quite real at first but the more we got into it the more

I should actually back up a little bit so [00:12:00] screen speed the original screen to speed competition was set up, using iRacing as the simulator that it used. Um, the qualification element of it would have 15 drivers who set the fastest time and there was also a social media element to it but, um, it really caught my attention because it was, like, an opportunity to compete on a whole different level, almost?

Like, I'd competed at a high level before because we had also done the British F4 Esports series. Uh, what is now last year and was, at the time, kind of just a couple of months ago, I was a reserve driver in that series. Oh, wow. Um, but even then that was like the highest level of competition I'd ever taken part in really because there were like actual teams from F4, actual racing drivers from British F4 taking part in that series as well as us and our little team feeling like we're kind of David versus Goliath in a way.[00:13:00]

How did you do in that? Um, that was interesting because this is long before I had the motorcycle. So like I was doing testing, alongside the two main drivers that we had, and it turned out for one of the rounds at Knock Hill that, um, one of our drivers had been injured. I think that's how, that's what happened. One of our drivers had been injured and wouldn't be able to take part in the race. And I found this out. 30 minutes before the race. Oh wow. On the bus home. Woah. Um, so I got the call up basically to race, uh, 30 minutes prior, and I think that was probably also my best result of the season, cause Knock Hill was the track that I knew the best. I think I finished 11th in the first race, and then probably 13th in the second race. So no points, but still like, much better than I

Andrea Hiott: expected. That's really high competition. So you had some

Saoirse: confidence. Yeah, I had some amount of confidence in myself going into it. And it was funny because it was, [00:14:00] um, The whole way through, there was two of us kind of vying for the top spot, myself and Emily Howe, who is one of the owners of Priz, uh, Prizmatic.

 If I say Priz, by the way, that's referring to Prizmatic, we just shorten it because it's, a lot of syllables. But it was me and Emily vying for the top spot for a long time during the time attack Where like one of us would set a time and then the other would beat it and there was a point where we were Kind of starting to think okay.

This is like getting towards a pace ceiling And then I think one of us probably just broke that pace ceiling then the other would break the pace ceiling and just keep going and going.

Andrea Hiott: Oh, that sounds like a good competition pushing the boundary

Saoirse: pushing the edge It was, yeah. I think on the last day that the time attack was opened, Emily put in just an unbelievably fast lap, right at the end, that I kind of looked at and I was like, wow, okay, I would never be able to do that.

 Oh, sorry, I should as well say that [00:15:00] screen to speed was done on the infield road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Um, so it's a relatively short course. It's about, I think, a mile, two miles, maybe. Okay. This is about nine turns. Uh, but we were doing this in the Ford Mustang, uh, Next Gen car, so the Cub Series, uh, next gen car. So you can imagine something that quick on a course that short, you would probably assume that it wouldn't really work, but it did because it was almost like every corner just flowed into the next, and that's what made it so difficult.

Because if you messed up one corner, that would like ruin your entry into the next corner.

Andrea Hiott: It would kind of have flow the

Saoirse: whole time. Yeah, you had to just hook up the whole lap together, and that will get you a really, really quick time, don't even remember what lap time I had done, but like, uh, people were taking it so seriously because, it was a pretty high level of competition, The stakes of if you qualify, you get flown to Vegas, put in a hotel, get to compete, at [00:16:00] the track, that I'd put in, like, a thousand laps.

I know that, I know that track like nothing else. It haunts me in my dreams.

Andrea Hiott: you're still going around it at night.

Saoirse: Yeah. But even like , a thousand laps later, Emily was able to find like three tenths on me. Just out of nowhere at the end. And I was like, wow. There's no way I'm gonna win this.

Like, going to Vegas, I was like, you know what, Emily's gonna win this. It's fine, I'm gonna enjoy the experience, try my best. Yeah, if I don't win, I don't win. That's kind of exactly what I expect to happen. It's also one of those things of you never really consider it over until the last day.

Cause sure, me and Emily were a considerable margin ahead of most of the rest of the field. But it was never really a thing of I fit I thought it was over until, the day that the time attack ended, really.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, because when it's that close, at least between you two

anything could happen, and

Saoirse: did, actually. I mean, yeah, it did in the end. But, um, the 15 of us that [00:17:00] qualified on PACE were then, there was the whole rigmarole of, figuring out the logistics of it, and,, flights, um, accommodation around the accommodation, and that kind of thing. But, It was also around this time that I was starting to do my motorcycle training, funnily enough. I think actually, a few days beforehand I had bought my motorcycle and ridden it home. It was the first time I rode on public roads alone. Oh that's memorable.

Yeah, it was definitely a wild experience., and that bike has a whole other story after Screen to Speed. Oh, really? Yeah. But I'll stick on Screen to Speed for the moment though. Okay, we'll come back to it get to Vegas, get to my hotel, go to sleep. Next day, we get ferried out to Resorts World.

Andrea Hiott: Who are you with then? You said there's ten people? Fifteen?

Saoirse: Uh, there was fifteen of us that qualified on Pace and then they had five, like, influencers, and then a WNBA player. I think they also wanted to have an [00:18:00] astronaut, but she couldn't actually, come because she had to do astronaut things. Significantly more important than a sim racing competition. But of the 15 that qualified, I think a not insignificant number, something like six, seven, eight, were also other people that I knew from Prismatic. So there was Emily who qualified, there was Olivia who brought all of our attention to it, there was Roxy Gibson who is a member of the, management of the team, other community members like Christina Ryan, or

Andrea Hiott: And you all were close, but had you actually been together in real life

Saoirse: much?

Um, no, I had never

Andrea Hiott: met any of these people. Yeah, okay. So this was kind of something that you're all meeting for the first time in a way, too, in real life. And in Vegas, I mean, my gosh. It's almost, it's almost like a paid kind of work trip. It was almost a paid,

Saoirse: yeah, it was almost a paid holiday, in a way.

Yeah, a holiday. This was my first time meeting all of these people that I'd Talked to extensively online and [00:19:00] racing and

Andrea Hiott: working with and yeah

Saoirse: And that was an amazing experience as well as getting to meet like everyone else that qualified Like

Andrea Hiott: seems like it would be almost overwhelming to have real life Contact suddenly with the people and also I mean at first you were still sim racing But knowing that you're gonna even have real contact with the car possibly and yeah It's a lot of different worlds colliding, isn't it?

Saoirse: Yeah, it was a lot All together, because I mean, I don't know like anyone who's ever been to Dublin knows it's like, no a particularly large city.

Andrea Hiott: It's a pretty big city, but yeah, it's not like it's a American,

Saoirse: it's a large city.

A city, but it's not like New York

Andrea Hiott: or Vegas. No, no. Or, and nothing is like Vegas

Saoirse: anyway, so, well, yeah. Nothing is like Vegas. But I'm sure you can kind of understand then going from, from Dublin to Vegas to Vegas is, that's really a monumental culture shock. Absolutely. Which was. One thing entirely, um, and then the fact that I think when I stepped off the plane, I hadn't slept in about 20 hours.

Andrea Hiott: Oh gosh, so [00:20:00] you're in a weird dream virtual Basically,

Saoirse: almost in a dream state trying to find my hotel room so I can just please go to sleep. Oh yeah, I know that feeling. It's funny in hindsight, but it, didn't set me up to like Vegas as a city. Yeah, it's a

Andrea Hiott: weird place.

Saoirse: It's a strange place, not a bad place necessarily, just Very strange.

Andrea Hiott: Especially when you're blurring all these worlds because Vegas is sort of already a little bit trying to be unreal, and then you have all these jet lag, and sim racing, and real humans, and real hotel rooms, real planes.

Saoirse: What's real, what is real, and what is fake, who knows. It feels like

Andrea Hiott: that when you have jet lag, but much less Vegas and sim racing after you've been doing thousands of sim racing laps.

Saoirse: Yeah. But yeah, I think it was Friday morning. Yeah, it would have been Friday morning, I think

 Yes, I think Friday [00:21:00] morning when we all basically met in the lobby of Resorts World and got checked in the other thing is, hotels in Ireland are not like hotels in Vegas obviously most hotels in Vegas are like also casinos, cause gambling is a huge thing in Vegas.

Yeah, pumping

Andrea Hiott: oxygen in with the light, full blast.

Saoirse: Yeah, um, the weirdest thing was that you can smoke cigarettes inside. Which is a completely alien concept to somebody from the EU being like, no, you can't smoke inside. You can literally, no, nowhere can you smoke inside. Almost my entire life.

It's been completely alien that you could smoke inside anywhere. Yeah, but I don't know, the scale, I guess, of hotels is kind of crazy in Vegas. But got to meet everyone finally in this

Andrea Hiott: weird hotel lobby Cavernous. Probably. Massive.

Saoirse: Crazy hotel lobby. Basically check in drop off bags in your hotel room and then, okay, we're going to the track. Can you

Andrea Hiott: describe the track, by the way, a

Saoirse: little bit? Um, the [00:22:00] track is Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

So the, um, track that, the Pensilville 400 and the South Bank Casino 400, whatever the fall rac the autumn race is called. That must have been exciting. Yeah, it was actually my first time to a racetrack as well. There's a lot of firsts in this

Andrea Hiott: whole experience. almost one after the other.

Saoirse: Do you remember

Andrea Hiott: like what that was like when you first walked in or were you still jet lagged

Saoirse: and no, I was feeling pretty human by that point. I think I was running on like four hours of sleep, but I was like You seem to be pretty

Andrea Hiott: good at that, running on four hours of sleep.

Saoirse: Yeah. it's the student's life. Yeah, and the

Andrea Hiott: sim life too, a little bit, isn't it?

Saoirse: I mean, if you have a race late at night for your time zone, you just kind of stay up late.

Andrea Hiott: You kind of lose track of time, especially somewhere like Twitch or something.

It's easy to forget what time it is. It really is. Or never know what time it is, really.

Saoirse: One minute it's nine o'clock, and then the next minute, oh god, it's half past twelve. Yeah, something

Andrea Hiott: very weird with time in those spaces. But anyway, so your first view of the racetrack in real life, what was [00:23:00] that feeling like?

Saoirse: A little bit surreal and a little bit overwhelming because it's huge. You never really realize how large a racetrack

Andrea Hiott: is, really. Because you always see the camera angles, but

Saoirse: actually being there is different, yeah. Because, like, you think a mile and a half racetrack, it's not that long, really.

 The straights are almost a half mile. But, it's huge. It's, Las Vegas Motor Speedway is, The size of, like, a large shopping center in Ireland, which is crazy for, just an oval, basically, to take up that much space with all the grandstands and then all the parking and all the catering stuff outside.

Yeah. It was wild, uh, to say the least. Then getting into the track, we were in the infields in the space that, uh, Dream Racing usually uses, for their on track experiences. We were in there with, all the sims and stuff.

Andrea Hiott: It was a big room with, everyone had their own setup, right?

Saoirse: Yeah, um, it [00:24:00] we only had 10 sims. So there's 19 of us that we're going to be racing Oh, I can see you

Andrea Hiott: did some shifts kind of

Saoirse: yeah, um, and we had to take turns basically doing testing and trying to match up with, similarly proportioned people to get the sim rig set up to our liking.

Andrea Hiott: Sure, because you have to adjust everything to your body like a real car.

Saoirse: Yeah. Yeah. Now, that was, like, an interesting thing all in and of itself, because I never, like, sat in a sim rig before either.

Andrea Hiott: Oh, really? How

Saoirse: did that feel? Bizarre. Um it was just different, really.

I was mostly just focused on getting used to, new equipment, the new seating position, kind of just everything to do with it. That was my main focus on the Friday and as well on the Saturday, we were doing, um, the meet like more so kind of media things for the documentary that was eventually released. And kind of setting up more fine tuning things for the actual racing of the broadcast later on that day. Um, so during friday during [00:25:00] saturday there was like trucks and xfinity and cup series doing races and practices and qualifying and stuff and i i don't know nothing really prepares you for just how loud race cars actually are When there's 30 of them flying past you.

Mm hmm.

Andrea Hiott: You really can't talk. Yeah, you can't talk.

Saoirse: I had to wear like a pair of headphones basically all the time outside of

Andrea Hiott: Your body feels the vibration

Saoirse: Yeah, it's crazy but then Saturday evening we had the broadcast and the race. So there's two heat races. I think I finished second in my heat race.

Um, so that set me into the feature race. Which was the big important one was like, win or lose, when you get all the prizes, and the

Andrea Hiott: prize was?

Saoirse: Well, the main prize was 15, 000 in cash. Not bad. It's a lot of money. Yeah. Um, then the secondary prize was being able to come back to Vegas to do a test in a race car. Uh, Las [00:26:00] Vegas Motor Speedway. A real race car, we should

Andrea Hiott: say. Yes.

Saoirse: A real race car. An actual Porsche, right? An actual Porsche, yes.

Andrea Hiott: So yeah, it's definitely motivating. So you're feeling pretty motivated and confident were you like, okay, I can probably do this or you're like, I'm just gonna do my best.

There's no way I'm gonna win. What

Saoirse: was your attitude? My attitude going into it actually was, on Friday I wasn't feeling super confident because the pace, my pace was down from what I was doing at home. But that was actually the case for everybody. Everyone like down on pace because we were all adapting

 but going into the heats, I think I started my heat on pole and then got a bad start and that's why I dropped down in the seconds. But starting on pole in the heat was really confidence inspiring and for the feature I was able to put together quite a good lap to get on pole again for the feature race.

Andrea Hiott: Then you were like, okay, I

Saoirse: can do it. Yeah. It was really only then that I put myself on pole for the feature race. I was kind of like, okay, you know what, I could actually win this. Like this could actually genuinely happen. I kind of even feel the nerves [00:27:00] coming back a little bit again, it was like, uh, electricity almost going through every bit of my body of Oh God, this could happen.

Andrea Hiott: That's really special.

Saoirse: Yeah. I think, um, after the race, I said it was the most stressful 20 laps of my life and it, I still stand by that. It was definitely the most stressed I'd ever been. In my entire life, because off the start, I got a pretty good start, got into turn one first, got out of turn one first with Emily right behind me. Oh, Emily again. Yeah, Emily right behind me. Emily, who is incredibly experienced, incredibly quick. And, I don't say that just to big up the fact that I won and I beat her, but like, just The amount of respect I have for her as a racing driver, um, having her just sitting behind me 20 laps waiting for me to make a mistake was like the thing in the back of my head of okay, you need to keep this clean, keep it clean, keep it clean.

And I, that's basically all I did. Just kept it clean. I didn't push particularly hard. I didn't open up much of a gap. I just held [00:28:00] it steady enough that she would have to like really push to try and overtake me and that's kind of what happened.

She started to overdrive her car just a little bit. she would get close and I would see her on the rail of getting closer. I would pick up the pace just a little bit and then she would drop back because she's made a mistake. And then she would close it back up and drop back and close it back up and drop back.

And I think, coming to the last corner on the last lap, I was like, okay, no, can't celebrate yet. Have to get, like, in a turn one after taking the checkered flag before I can celebrate. And I, like, specifically remember thinking that. But even then, took the checkered flag, got to turn one. It wasn't, like, leap out of my seat, overjoyed. This is like, race is finished, I have won now.

Andrea Hiott: But you still couldn't let

Saoirse: go or what? It was more like, I don't know, it was kind of like if you go and watch the documentary, you can see that I kind of just sit there for a minute. Yeah, you do see your body kind of It's slowly dawn on me what I've actually just accomplished.[00:29:00]

And that's kind of how it felt. I got the check in, it's like Intellectually, I know what just happened, but emotionally, it's just a surge of pride and, almost a sense of shock, uh, that, I just did this, and, this is what this means, and Everything kind of coming together. So I just just sit there and cover my face basically being like, how do I, how do I express this?

And I couldn't really figure it out because even for like 10 minutes, 15 minutes after that, as the cameras kept rolling on broadcast, I don't make a very good showing for myself. I'm fairly inarticulate at that point because I'm still just like. overwhelmed.

Andrea Hiott: And also like you were saying you were so stressed. So it's a lot at once. It's like your body's releasing, but at the same time you're feeling another adrenaline rush when you're starting to let it sink in what's really happened. So it's a kind of a weird, it's like the tide going out and in at the same time.

It is

Saoirse: actually, yeah.

Andrea Hiott: But it's [00:30:00] actually nice to watch , I'll try to put some clips in because you can see the emotion even though you don't say anything, you know, you can see. Yeah, the like. The dawning

Saoirse: upon you. Yeah. That it kind of just comes to me that like, oh my goodness, this is what has just happened. And everyone else congratulating me and I'm kind of just standing there kind of awestruck. In a way.

Andrea Hiott: Well, I mean, it is a big deal and it's like you're just going with it, going with it, going with the inertia of it, and then

Saoirse: it's there. It kind of hits of like all of a sudden, oh my goodness.

 But

Andrea Hiott: that still wasn't quite the

Saoirse: end, so. No, that wasn't quite the end, like we finish up the broadcast of presenting the check and the, trophy and things, and then

Andrea Hiott: then you went back.

Saoirse: Yeah, went back, um Load your motorcycle some more.

Yeah, I, well, I went home, rode my motorcycle some more,, this is where that kind of whole other story of the motorcycle comes into it,

Andrea Hiott: maybe we can have a motorcycle interlude

Saoirse: now. Yes, uh, the motorcycle interlude. So, the bike [00:31:00] that I bought was a 2019 Kawasaki Z400. Why do I think

Andrea Hiott: it's green?

Saoirse: Green and black. Yes. It's the, Kawasaki line kind of color that they have, um, that's black, lovely little bike. I loved it to bits. Um, but it was also an absolute nightmare in the beginning because that bike has an alarm on it. Um, and that alarm. Maybe the battery in it went, or something was going wrong with it, the previous owner hadn't ridden it much, really.

And that would really be enough to kill a motorcycle battery sometimes, but the, but the alarm had killed that battery stone dead. So, when I got home It wouldn't start. Oh gosh. Because the battery was dead. Mm. Um, try and charge it overnight, it wouldn't hold the charge. So go out and buy another battery.

It managed to kill that one too. , it wasn't great because for about a month and a half. Even though you were completely rich now. Yeah, I could have gone out and bought another bike or [00:32:00] fixed it or whatever, but I also didn't want to spend all of that money.

No, of course not. But It was kind of funny where for a month and a half or so, I rode around with a pair of jump leads in my bag, all the time. Just 'cause sometimes I would go into work, like it'd start in the morning, I'd go into work and I'd come out from work and then the bike wouldn't start. And then I think I like watched a YouTube video or like read an article somewhere about how you can get lithium ion batteries for motorcycles and I'd never considered that as a possibility, but looked into like, why would you buy a lithium ion battery?

And it's because as opposed to lead acid batteries, where when you drain the charge out of it, it puts out less voltage. Um, a lithium ion battery doesn't do that. It puts out the same voltage basically until it's dead. And for what it's worth, that was what was preventing the bike from starting.

So if the battery was drained a bit, it's not putting out enough voltage to, turn the starter motor I kind of just replaced the lead acid battery that was in it with a [00:33:00] lithium ion battery and that, Solved the problem. Cause even if the alarm was still like, depleting the battery a bit, the battery was still putting out enough voltage to start the bike. Okay. And then as you ride the bike around, it's going to recharge the battery again. That was a success. Yeah. That was a massive success.

It made my life owning a motorcycle so much easier.

Andrea Hiott: Okay, well, so this all happened in the space between

Saoirse: yeah, screen speed was the start of March. Okay. March. So it was kind of in the period between March and June where I go home, go back to work, and now I have a motorcycle that I ride to work every day and then eventually figure out the problems with the bike.

 A lot of different worlds you are living in. Yeah. Still are. Still am, yeah. But during that period, um, Stephanie and everyone behind the scenes was figuring out the logistics of getting me back to do the test. Um, and figuring out, okay, is the fact that I don't have a [00:34:00] driving license going to be okay? Like, is that okay? Basically. Yeah,

Andrea Hiott: in the States,

Saoirse: and it was actually fine. Yeah. But you do have your

Andrea Hiott: permit too, so it's.

Yeah, I have my permit.

Saoirse: I have my permit, but I haven't done any driver training. I did my theory test and that's it. But yeah, driving the race car was, Incredible, really, because, obviously I got flown back.

Andrea Hiott: They realized you can drive even though you don't have a license, you're still going to be allowed. Yeah. Everything was set up. And then this was summer, right?

When you came back.

Saoirse: Yeah, this was summer, so I was actually terrified that the heat would, like, not literally kill me, but, it was gonna be, like, almost 40 Celsius in Vegas, and, like, the highest we might get here is, the 30s if it's really hot. But actually, it was kind of fine, because the air was so dry, it's in the Yeah, it's different hot.

Andrea Hiott: But yeah, so you can't come in the middle of summer to Vegas to drive a sports car without a license, I love it.

Saoirse: Yeah, things that would be in almost [00:35:00] any other context extremely illegal, but it turned out it was fine for the insurance and that, um, they brought me to the track and, I should also have mentioned that, um, Sabré Cook who raced in the W Series and now races in the, I believe, Porsche Carrera North American Deluxe Series.

I might be getting the words in the wrong order, but she races in that series at the moment for Kelly Moss and Kelly Moss were also a partner on, uh, Screen to Speed. Uh, so she was there to help coach me basically for driving a real car. Cause I'd never driven a real car before.

Yeah. It was incredible to meet her. What a

Andrea Hiott: nice coach to have for the first, your first driving. What

Saoirse: a qualified coach to have for my first time driving a race car. And she was a great help for like helping my nerves, I guess, in a way.

Andrea Hiott: How so?, just with giving you advice

Saoirse: it was mostly advice, because um, the only time I had ever controlled a real [00:36:00] car before was my mom's Skoda Fabia in a car park.

Okay, a little bit different. It was terrifying. Which is really, which is really funny. So I was kind of going to Vegas with, like, no driving experience, being like, terrified, like, really, really nervous up until basically the day I get on the plane.

And then at that point, I'm like, well, it's gonna go how it goes. Yeah. And at that point, the nerves kind of, fall away a little bit because it's just, It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen whether I'm prepared or not. So I'm gonna get on that plane, go to, go back to Vegas and drive that car.

Andrea Hiott: When you're thinking about it and anticipating it, it's the hard part.

Saoirse: Yeah. I think really on the day that, I was going to be driving the car, the revelation that, okay, thank God, it's an automatic, it has like.

paddle shifters, I don't have to worry about a clutch. That was the thing that really did make a difference for me. But it is America, so. I mean, yeah, it's

Andrea Hiott: America. Chances are it's gonna be an automatic.

Saoirse: Chances are it's gonna be an automatic, [00:37:00] which is strange. We don't really have, well. No, I know. Up until recently, automatics weren't really that common here.

Andrea Hiott: I know one of the first times I came to Europe, I rented a car and just assumed it would be automatic, being an American, was definitely wrong, so that's how I learned to drive a stick shift, I had no choice. I rented the car in the middle of nowhere, it was like the only car they had, the guy went around the block a few times, like taught me how to do it. Anyway

Saoirse: that's an

Andrea Hiott: incredibly funny story. Yeah, it was great, but that's kind of what you did, too. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself into these situations.

It's like, this is happening, I'm either gonna be stuck in the middle of nowhere, I'm gonna learn to drive this car. Yeah. And for you it was like, I'm gonna, I'm going to be in a Porsche on the racetrack. Yeah. Might as well

Saoirse: drive. I'm gonna be, probably, I'm gonna be like, given the control of this very expensive car, I need to make sure not to crash it.

BUt we

Andrea Hiott: should say that simulation really is like driving. Yeah. For people who haven't done it before, I mean, there's a reason that race car drivers use simulation so much. It actually is [00:38:00] training. Yes, it's different to be in the real car, but You had been practicing a lot.

Saoirse: Yeah, that is kind of the thing that, like, simulator racing is obviously not perfect in a lot of ways, that are, they're, like, particular things with every, uh, company's sim software that's not quite right, like tire modeling or aerodynamics or chassis dynamics or whatever it is.

Yeah. Um, but even in spite of that, just the, like, muscle memory of, okay, this is how you control a car at speed. This is what you do if a car does this and this and this. This is what the track is like. Yeah, this is what the track is like, this is where the track goes, just immediately took over when I got the car moving.

Mm hmm. Because, getting a car around when it's going slowly is completely different to, like, pushing a car to its limits.

Andrea Hiott: Hmm, I don't know. That's interesting.

Saoirse: Um, kind of in the sense that when you drive a car at I think the pit road speed was something around like 35 mile an hour. [00:39:00] Um, you don't get, at least I feel you don't get a lot of feedback from a car.

It's not telling you a lot about what it's doing and what you're doing to it. But like when you're. Stamping on the brakes, going into a corner, uh, and the rear tyres lock up just a little bit. You can feel the rear end, step out just a

Andrea Hiott: bit. It's almost part of your body then or

Saoirse: something.

Mm hmm. It does actually kind of almost become part of your body because you kind of almost like an instinctual thing of like, okay, this is how large the car is, this is where my right tyres, my left tyres are, my right tyres, and All of that kind of thing. you almost kind of feel what the thing that you're controlling is doing, whether it's a motorcycle or a bicycle or like a car. Yeah. Because, obviously, all of my experience controlling simulated cars has been pretty much at racing speeds.

So, like, a hundred kilometers an hour plus. Um, like, That was part of it too then, yeah. Yeah, as used to that. Yeah, I was used to, like, the speed of it, really, so as soon as I got up to speed, I was like, okay, [00:40:00] this is what I'm used to. Uh, just like, there's now the extra forces of G forces and, being able to feel the car you know, they say through the seat of your pants, but, they lit basically literally mean it, because that's the bit of you that's connected to the

car. It kind of became like, you relaxed, relaxed into it and like realizing, okay, this is what I'm used to.

I know what I'm doing now. Um, and I got surprisingly comfortable in the car, surprisingly quickly. I didn't think I would get so comfortable so quickly.

Andrea Hiott: Was it more exciting than you thought? Less exciting? Was it, how did it compare in terms of the simulation versus the real thing

Saoirse: was? Um, I think really the simulation can never really capture Almost in a way like how driving a car feels because like in a simulation you're relying entirely off of what you can see what you can hear and what you can feel from the wheel.

Um, but when you're actually driving a car in real life you're feeling more so the G forces on your [00:41:00] body and what the car like through the seat what the car is doing, rather than necessarily the, steering feel and that kind of thing and as well with ABS how it can like push a brake pedal back at you and that kind of like how that feels Because, um, if you don't have specific hardware, you can't get that brake feeling.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, did you have any moment like oh, I'm really driving a Porsche, this is really happening, or were you just

Saoirse: in it? It was it was only ever when the car was stationary. So, like, in the pit lane, getting into the car, like, oh my god, oh my god, this is happening.

Then, car moving, immediately, that turns off, focused on driving. Mm hmm. Um.

Andrea Hiott: Isn't that funny? It's, it's so habitual in a way, the body just kind of locks into these things, a lot of drivers talk about that, that feeling where you almost just, you're a different person almost when

Saoirse: you're in that.

I mean, I can tell you that, you do sort of become a different person when you race.. And even in the context of a race, it can bring out like [00:42:00] frustration and like aggression that you don't usually have just being a normal person outside of the race car. But as soon as you're in the car, it's like. Heightened. You do, you do sort of become a different person because of the context and like the level of danger in a way and kind of the stakes of, okay, I don't want to break the car or lose or, crash into somebody else or, oh, this person hit me.

I'm really angry at them.

Andrea Hiott: Are you really competitive? Do you, does that drive

Saoirse: you? I do get very competitive, yeah. I mean, that's

Andrea Hiott: not a bad thing

Saoirse: yeah, I mean, it's definitely not a bad thing, and in a sim racing space, it's quite good to be competitive because it drives you to be better.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, like what you were talking about with your colleague. It sounds like she made you better. She did. Made each other

Saoirse: better, so, yeah. We definitely pushed each other further than we would have gone without that

so tell

Andrea Hiott: me, what was it like, that, that last, that race, driving the

Saoirse: real Porsche, [00:43:00] driving the real Porsche,

Andrea Hiott: the final, the

Saoirse: finale. Yeah. They're

Andrea Hiott: like people watching standing around. I mean, what was, yeah,

Saoirse: um, there weren't actually that many people. It was. At the track it was me, the two videographers, Steffi, Victoria Thomas, who is the CEO of Kelly Moss, Sabre Cook, the racing driver who was coaching me, and then one of the coaches from Dream Racing, who was like also doing a bit of like advice because he'd driven that specific car.

I see. Good, good. Yeah, a great group of people to have,, and it was really funny because Victoria was definitely the more conservative, uh, voice in my ear compared to Steffi, where Victoria was like, Oh, just take your time. Like, you know, you don't have to go full send. Yeah. Um, and Steffi was like, no, go for it.

Go for it. Full send. Full send. But I was honestly really surprised just how quick I got, comfortable in the car, because, um, The first car they actually had me drive was a GT, [00:44:00] Porsche Cayman GT4 road car. And for whatever reason, the way that handled was like, when you hit the brakes hard into a corner, the rear brakes would have a little bit of a tendency to lock up.

So every time I would brake just a little too hard, the rear would step out. And I would have to catch it. Which isn't ideal in a racing setting, but like, having me hit the brakes and then, oh god, rear stepping out, catch it, multiple times, that got me like, okay, you know what, yeah, I can do this.

 This is so much fun. It's, actually, something that I can do. People say they get addicted to racing and I totally get that now. Like being a sim racer, it's it's not really like, feeling of an addiction or anything, of like, having to do it, but like kind of the feeling of control and like accomplishment of like you can muscle this big heavy powerful car. Around the racetrack reasonably quickly. I'm control the moments where it steps out Just a little bit like if you get too heavy on the throttle like you can control that break it

Andrea Hiott: steps out on yeah There's something addictive about [00:45:00] that too.

Isn't it like finding that kind of balance of whatever that is Like almost like surfing or something where you're just finding the sweet spot

Saoirse: Yeah, kind of like where you're pushing just at the edge of grip and it's pushing back at you being like, watch it, buddy. Watch it.

Andrea Hiott: And you really have to. I mean, it's no joke.

Saoirse: Yeah. Like, it's no joke at all. Yeah, I mean, I am unbelievably lucky to have been able to experience that.

Andrea Hiott: And do you want it, do you want more? Was it weird for it to be over?

Saoirse: It was definitely hard to be told, okay, like the time we have allotted is over, you need to bring the car in. Oh, that's right.

That was quite sad. I was like, please, no, let me have 10 more laps. Just do one more. I like, come on, I can do a better lap. Um, and it's like Partially, this isn't an amazing experience, like definitely the racing driver in me being like, no, I can go faster. I can go faster. Let me do it. Maybe

Andrea Hiott: you might actually be a race car driver.

Whoa.

Saoirse: Yeah, I [00:46:00] mean. We'll get to that., but like going home after that was kind of wild of okay, I've had this experience and I had already been looking into, okay, how do you get a like competition license in Ireland, uh, from Motorsport Ireland. And that was like the proverbial kick in the ass basically to actually, get that done.

 So I think like two weeks after I had gotten home, I got booked in for the license course, uh, that Motorsport Ireland do. That was quick. I think it was a month ago ish today. Um, which was going down to Mondello, which is Ireland's primary racetrack. To do a theory course and a theory test as well as a practical elements of it of Driving around the National Circuit, in a Mazda with a roll cage in it. I don't know what kind of Mazda it was, if I'm entirely honest. But getting to , push a car again on a racetrack, uh, though this time it was my first time driving a manual. I [00:47:00] got the car up to speed into third and then did not ship, uh, change gears . Oops. Um, just kept it in there. Yeah, I just kept it in third, the instructor was like, oh, if you're not comfortable like changing gears, you can just leave it in third.

Um, but aside from the fact that meant I was, like, bogging down out of the corners, I was, like, trying to push it hard within reason. Because all you really need to do for that test is not, make any major mistakes on the track. But obviously, you can get a better result on the practical test if you, show a degree of confidence of, racing lines, braking, uh, smoothness, and that kind of thing. So I did that and submitted the um, license application, and I'm waiting to hear back on that. Yeah, soon I will have a competition license in Ireland.

Andrea Hiott: So I'm totally confused though. How can you have that and not get your driver's

Saoirse: license? Similar to how under 18s can like race cars in like through [00:48:00] Europe, um, but not have a driving license. Why not just get

Andrea Hiott: your driver's license though?

Saoirse: Uh, because that's like an extra 600 ish euro. Oh, okay. And then there's like a six to eight month waiting list in some driving test centers. And in some it's even longer. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's A bit of a grim one at the moment, but that's mainly for car, license tests

Andrea Hiott: but if you don't need it, it's kind of cool that you don't drive a car in real life, but you race cars, I kind of like it.

Saoirse: yEah, I mean, hopefully if I get the license back soon enough, I might be able to do an Arrive and Drive, in the Historic Series, um, that is run in Mandelo. Um, and the historic series has like multiple different classes of cars in it and has different types of cars and that kind of thing.

Andrea Hiott: You just rent a car or at least do something like with a team or

Saoirse: how does Um, yes. There's somebody I know that races in that [00:49:00] series regularly, um, who has contacts within the series for people that I could rent a car off of for a race weekend. The like, real dream is to race in the Ford Fiesta Z Tech series in Mondello. Tell me about that. Yeah. Okay. Not particularly glamorous. Okay. Um, it's kind of the like full contact sport of Irish motorsports I mean, that's kind of the truth, uh, because, in that series, they race, uh, late 90s to early 2000s Ford Fiesta Z Tecs. Okay, only Ford Fiesta Z Tecs. Wow. Yeah, only Ford Fiesta Z Tecs in that series. That's special. Uh, there's also a Fiesta ST series for like later ones with the turbochargers.

Um, but these are, yeah, but this is a class of like little hatchbacks with 1. 25 liter engines, uh, gutted with like race preps and everything. Yeah. It looks like it's so much fun. And there's a couple of people that I know, uh, that race in that [00:50:00] series and they're. At least four women that actually run that series at the moment.

Oh, which is incredible. So that's the ideal into that. But the reason I would want to go into that is because it's, like, the cheapest. Uh, sit, uh, racing series in Ireland to get into. Yeah. Cause like, you can get a race, like a prepped race car for somewhere in the region of 8, 000 euro.

Which is a lot of money, but I also did win 15k Yeah, you have. so I have the money there.

Andrea Hiott: the right way. Yeah. Such a crazy thing though, you didn't start out with go karts and all this stuff, it's so interesting you did the sim and now you're going into it. It's really. I guess that's going to be more and more in the future.

Yeah. You're really at this edge of change.

Saoirse: Yeah. I do think that we are. Over time, we're going to see more sim racers get into real racing. I know there have been sim racers that have gotten into real racing before. And they've proven to [00:51:00] be pretty competent. Jimmy Broadbent

Andrea Hiott: is a prime example. How do you feel about, sim racing versus real racing when it comes to something like the environment and all these other issues that we face.

Do you think about that at all? Like, why am I going to get into, you know, I see internal combustion engine stuff when, not that sim stuff, it also takes a lot of energy. It's just in a different way. But have you thought much about all that and this change that we're going through now with electric and so

Saoirse: on?

I have a bit. Yeah. And I do feel like. At the very least, at the top levels of motorsport, I do kind of expect ICEs to go the way of the Dodo, really. Um, and not particularly in the distant future. I kind of expect it to happen in like the next decade or so. Um, but like the top levels of racing are gonna be electric, but like for grassroots stuff, I do think that the ICE is gonna stick around.

And, what I've thought about that, it's kind of like, [00:52:00] I have thought about anyway, the element of environmental impact that, racing has, not even from just exhaust pollution, but, like, rubber pollution and all of the rubber that has to be produced and the pollution that creates, and the waste that goes into racing and kind of all of that.

In motorsports, anyway, it's sort of it has to happen anyway for internal combustion racing. Um, but as we try to transition anyway, it's more, it's more sustainable energy sources, like motorsports will have to pick up that baton as well at some stage and start finding more ways to be more sustainable, like how F1 is, uh, working towards using, um, renewable fuels rather than like purely fossil fuel derived fuels or

I know that the, engine durability and component durability stuff is to do with sustainability rather than just, like, [00:53:00] having 20, like, 20 or 40 engines through the whole season have however many because it reduces waste. Yeah, I was

Andrea Hiott: going to ask you about the Formula 1 change, do you think if that, if their 2030 plan, if they really, if it really starts changing in those places, would you, would you imagine it starts changing?

Yeah, I would

Saoirse: say so. I'd say that technology will trickle down. As it gets more advanced, it'll become cheaper and more accessible further down the ladder of, um, motorsports, like down into the grassroots level. Um, cause that's kind of how it has always been with motorsports anyway. Like we have motorsports to thank for ABS and traction control.

Which has probably personally saved my life a number of times. The motorcycle has, uh, ABS on it. And there have been a number of times Okay, so it literally saved your life a few times.

Yeah, there's been a number of times I've been spooked, pulled the brakes a bit too hard or stepped on the rear brake a little bit too hard and felt the ABS being [00:54:00] like, Come on, buddy. Calm down. Yeah, you really

Andrea Hiott: have to be careful on the bike.

That's no joke. Um, but now you don't have to worry about that. I guess we should tell the story of, uh,

Saoirse: yeah. Uh, so unfortunately, my Kizaki Z400 was stolen, a week before this recording. It's kind of really cruel that it happened when I was in work.

Andrea Hiott: So you were at the cafe?

Saoirse: I was, yeah, I work in a cafe, in Dublin. But it's kind of cruel that it happened when I was in work and heard the alarm go off and kind of, oh, my first thought. And the alarm,

Andrea Hiott: I mean, gosh, all this stuff with the alarm and the battery and

Saoirse: you heard the alarm, did you run out or what? I heard, I heard the alarm go off. And like, obviously your first thought is never going to be, oh, the bike's being stolen. My first thought was like, oh, somebody must have like backed into it or something because it was in a car park. Um, and I look out the window and just see a guy on it riding away. Oh, you saw someone riding?

I saw [00:55:00] the guy riding away. Yeah. What could you

Andrea Hiott: do? I guess go out screaming. It's not gonna

Saoirse: Um, I guess I could have, uh, but it wouldn't really have done much good because that road is quite busy. If I tried to run across, I'd have just gotten hit by a car. So there wasn't really much that I could do. Oh, I'm so sorry that

Andrea Hiott: happened.

Gosh.

Saoirse: Yeah, I mean, I guess I've kind of accepted it at this point. I had theft cover, at least on my insurance.

Andrea Hiott: Okay, I was going to ask, did you get insurance, did you have insurance? I did, yeah. So you did a

Saoirse: little something back. Yeah, I'll get a bit, I'll get some amount of money back. Um, I don't know what I'm going to get yet.

It'll probably be a CBR 500 or because there's a bunch of those on the second hand market. I guess we'll see. Yeah, just be careful. I will for sure. I will definitely be riding safe. I'm not going to be proving anyone right about how dangerous motorcycles are. Especially

Andrea Hiott: in cities and stuff. I love motorcycles, but yeah, you're a good driver and you got so much ahead of you, so you gotta be careful.

I will for sure. Speaking [00:56:00] of that, last questions. So this is called forever motoring and what does, what does that mean to you?

Do you, when you think about forever motoring, maybe in the context of your own life and how do you see like your possible future, what would you like to see?

Saoirse: Um, I guess to me personally, my future with motoring, I would hope anyway that I can be a racing driver, whether it's pro or I can find some way to self fund, like an amateur team in the Z Tech series.

Uh, just because I do love racing so much and I love, driving cars quickly. Though, like, on the flip side of that, if that's not possible, I do actually really love riding motorcycles too. And I do honestly envision, even with Irish weather being absolutely miserable sometimes, like my primary mode of transport being a motorcycle for a long, long long time.

Even probably after internal combustion engines are dead and gone, I'll probably still be [00:57:00] riding, when I'm like 60, 70, 80, if I can.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, there's something about a motorcycle.

It seems like you found that out, so.

Saoirse: Yeah, there really is. Um, they tell you all the feeling of freedom you're gonna feel or like when you're not able to ride for a while, like the itch you feel, mm hmm. It's under your skin of, oh, I want to be on a bike.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, it becomes like meditative kind of experience too. Not necessarily in Dublin, but even sometimes in the city.

Saoirse: It is of like just how much focus you have to put in to be safe and that kind of thing.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah, it's about discipline really. It's about Being present, that's why I guess it's the meditative thing You really have to be really extra aware for yourself and everyone around you.

Saoirse: Mm hmm, especially like especially riding in a city But like even just the joy that you can derive from it riding around country roads, I mean there have been multiple times.

I've been just riding home from work random day. I've been like, oh, I'm so glad I'm alive Like riding a bike, the sunset is beautiful. It's [00:58:00] nice and

Andrea Hiott: warm. Isn't it wonderful to have that feeling? It is. Yeah, where you just realize life is special and this is great. Mm hmm. I mean, that's always true, but we get so lost in thought or whatever and we get distracted, but it's great You have those moments where you realize that.

I hope you keep having more and more of those. congratulations. I wish you the best with

Saoirse: everything, thanks. And thank you for having me on the show, it's been a real

Andrea Hiott: privilege.

 Yeah, it's been wonderful to talk to you, and I hope we can do it again, because I'm sure there's going to be many more reasons to invite you on the show, so. Hopefully. And new motorcycles to talk

Saoirse: about, so. Yeah, definitely. Hopefully, in an indeterminate amount of time, I'll have done enough exciting things to fill another 90 minutes.

Andrea Hiott: I'm sure. I mean, this has only been one year, so.

Saoirse: It's true, actually. Yeah. This is basically a year of my life, um, so hopefully the next year is as exciting.

Andrea Hiott: Yeah. Just, I'm sure it will be, you know, just take it easy and you got a lot of years ahead, so don't worry. I know. No rush. All right. Well, have a [00:59:00] good day there.

Do something good for yourself. You too. I'm sure the next motorcycle will find you. I'm sure it will. Yeah. All right.

Saoirse: Thanks. Thank you.

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Robot Transcript:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Forever Motoring. Today. We have Serratia Fitzpatrick from Ireland who won the first ever Screen to Speed championship. The grand prize and what is Screen to speed? Well, it's a real life track event. And a racing simulator. She'll describe it, but she basically did both. And, uh, this is a conversation about. How it feels to be a virtual racer and then become a real racer on a real track. Which is happening more and more these days.

this Episode goes along with a post. On www dot forever. motoring.com. That is about. Simulated motoring SIM racing, and also the kind of trend of in philosophy. Cause you all know a philosophy nerd, um, the trend and philosophy of. Thinking that life is a simulation. So I go into that a little bit on the post and. Uh, here in this conversation, we talk about some racing. Itself.

And what speed means in a virtual world? What speed means on the track? What virtual racing is Serratia helps us understand a little bit what it's like to be in the SIM rig. The technology. The simulation machine. That one race is in. It's something we've mentioned quite often on the show, because most of the people who are racing, use it as practice. And also we talked with Stephie bough, who is the founder of screen to Speed. . A lot of teams use this already. Of course, as practice. The FAA, the FIA, the governing body for auto racing, including formula one. Uses a lot of SIM racing platforms. And if you talk to the drivers, they'll tell you, it makes a big difference in how they drive. But also there's this kind of idea that maybe we should just be racing online or racing in simulation instead of on the track where we use up all kinds of fuel and take up space and pollute the air and all of this. Uh, but here we have searched Fitzpatrick who has been on both sides, started as a SIM racer. And then. Got to actually race a real Porsche on a real track. Because she won the overall competition. Of screen to Speed.. Kelly Moss team was there. Saber cook was there. Givin. Serratia some advice. She had Stefie Bau there beside her. So she had a lot of amazing drivers giving her advice. The first time she drove a race car. The Porsche, which was the second time in her life she'd ever driven.

She had only driven one car. Her mom's Skoda in the car park. I think she says otherwise she'd only ever driven a Kawasaki motorcycle. So it's pretty amazing that she went from driving SIM cars to driving a Porsche on the racetrack, we will talk about that here.

And we also talk about how Saoirse has discovered motorcycles and uh, works at a coffee shop. She's balancing a lot. And that's part of this conversation too, is. Thinking about what motoring means in our everyday lives and looking at these other kind of weird worlds and all these different realities sort of colliding and how they're all part of what moves her and what moves us and the changing ways of the world right now.