iRacing to Reality: Chaz Draycott

You’ve probably heard plenty of stories about sim racers turning their iRacing success into real-world opportunities. But getting behind the wheel isn’t the only way to break into professional motorsport—just ask Chaz Draycott, the “voice of truck racing” in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship and one of the voices of this year’s FIA Motorsport Games.

Draycott’s journey to those roles through iRacing began just over a decade ago. Tracing his interest in racing back through childhood, where he created his own championships with toy cars and took inspiration from legends like Murray Walker, he got a gaming PC of his own after watching Apex Racing TV broadcasts.

It wasn’t too long after that when Apex’s Alex Simpson and Andrew Woodhouse gave him a trial behind the mic. Draycott took full advantage of the opportunity to become one of sim racing’s most prominent faces and voices over the next few years.

“It was described as ‘the best first commentary they’d ever heard,’” Draycott says. “From there I commentated regularly for them. In early 2020 I started broadcasting for myself as well, doing the work of a three-man broadcast team singlehandedly, at a high standard. On top of this, I was running my own series too.”

As with so many other faces in the sim racing community, the COVID-19 pandemic provided Draycott with a chance to prove himself alongside real-world pros. It was then that he met one of his favorite voices, David Addison, whose support changed his path dramatically.

“As COVID hit, I took a chance to introduce myself to a number of ‘real world’ commentators that had been almost forced to make the switch,” he explains. “(David) gave me some of his time, soon joining me on one of my own series, which happened to be a parody of what he’s most known for commentating on – the BTCC. From there, he was kind enough to delegate a number of real-world commentary opportunities my way, eventually leading to the world feed of the Nurburgring 24 Hours.”

Addison’s support helped Draycott land gigs with numerous series over the following few years, from the European Truck Racing and Motorsport Games roles he’s best known for to Clio Cup Europe and CarFest. In the end, he credits sim racing with giving him his shot, and still commentates iRacing events regularly to stay in practice.

“I feel sim racing commentary is actually more difficult – a definite tool for anyone to hone their craft – and great to keep me sharp for my real-world gigs,” he says. “It all came down to iRacing giving me such a great platform to go racing, create the series I’d always wanted to, and develop my commentary skills.”

Images via Chaz Draycott

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