Twenty-four hours. One circuit. Very little sleep.

Over the weekend, AWD-IT took on a full 24-hour iRacing endurance event at Silverstone, bringing together sim racers, motorsport personalities and the AWD-IT team for a full day and night of virtual racing.

With Jimmy Broadbent, SuperGT and Archie Hamilton among those involved, the event brought plenty of experience to the grid - but endurance racing is about much more than outright speed.

It’s about consistency, teamwork and simply making it to the end.

24 Hours Is a Long Time to Race

A normal gaming session might last a couple of hours.

An endurance race lasts an entire day.

That means drivers need to rotate throughout the event, handing the car over while the rest of the team manages strategy, keeps an eye on what’s happening on track and, ideally, gets some sleep.

As the race moves from afternoon into evening, through the night and back into daylight, concentration becomes just as important as raw pace.

One mistake can undo hours of work.

That’s what makes endurance racing such a different challenge.

Racing Alongside Some Familiar Names

A big part of the weekend was having racers including Jimmy Broadbent, SuperGT and Archie Hamilton involved in the event.

All three have built audiences around cars, motorsport and sim racing, helping show just how far racing simulators have come.

Sim racing sits in an interesting place between gaming and motorsport.

You can jump into a race for fun with a basic wheel and pedals, or you can spend years developing racecraft, consistency and an understanding of how a car behaves.

That accessibility is one of the reasons the sim racing community continues to grow.

More Than Just a Race

The weekend wasn't only about completing 24 hours around Silverstone.

The event also supported Ruff & Ruby, a local charity doing important work within the community, with money raised during the event going towards supporting their work.

Bringing gaming, motorsport and fundraising together gave the weekend a purpose beyond where the car finished on track.

For everyone who watched the stream, donated, shared the event or simply supported the team along the way:

Thank you.

Background Downloads Are Easy to Miss

Modern games receive large updates, and your launcher may continue downloading additional content while you’re playing.

Windows, Steam, Discord, cloud storage and other applications can also be active in the background.

If your performance suddenly feels worse after installing an update, open Task Manager and check whether anything else is heavily using your:

CPU, RAM, storage or network connection.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one.

You Don't Need to Be Jimmy Broadbent to Start

Watching experienced sim racers can make the hobby look intimidating.

It doesn't need to be.

Nobody starts by knowing the perfect braking point for every corner at Silverstone.

Part of the enjoyment is learning.

You start missing apexes.

Then you find them.

You start braking too early.

Then too late.

Eventually you begin putting consistent laps together and suddenly you understand why people can happily spend hours trying to find another few tenths of a second.

That's sim racing.

There is always another lap.

You Can Swap Whenever You Want

This is one of the best parts.

You could play Call of Duty using a keyboard and mouse, then launch a racing game and pick up your controller.

For many supported games, switching between the two is as simple as moving the mouse or pressing a button on the controller.

PC gaming gives you the freedom to use whichever control method works best for the game you're playing.

What Else Do You Need With Your First Gaming PC?

Technically, the PC itself is only part of your setup.

You'll also need a display and some way of controlling it.

A typical setup might include:

Gaming PC + monitor + keyboard + mouse + headset

And then a controller if you want one.

You don't need to buy everything at the most expensive level either.

If you're starting completely from scratch, AWD-IT's gaming peripherals include keyboards, mice, headsets and other accessories to complete your setup.

Moving From Console Doesn't Have to Feel Completely Different

Switching to PC gaming comes with plenty of new things to learn.

There are graphics settings, different game stores, PC components and a lot more customisation.

Your controls don't have to be another thing to worry about.

If you're comfortable with a controller, start with a controller.

You can learn keyboard and mouse later if you want to.

Or never switch at all.

That's your choice.