Donovan Strauss has made a name for himself recently, both in iRacing and in the real-life racing world. Strauss scored a seventh-place finish tonight at Richmond Raceway, his best result of the still-young 2023 eNASCAR season.
Outside of his duties with Williams eSports, Strauss races legend cars near his hometown of Marietta, Georgia on most weekends, and has found recent success in that side of his career. This past weekend at Lanier Raceway, he took home a pair of fourth-place finishes. Is it a coincidence he has success in both? It is not.
Even only at 17 years old, Strauss has been in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for Williams eSports for two seasons. Last season, he struggled to find success and seemingly found all the bad luck in the world. His season consisted of only two top-ten finishes and a 21st-place finish in the points, with a best finish of fourth at Pocono Raceway in July.
While last season was a disappointment for the young driver, he is looking to rebound in his sophomore year. A top-ten finish in the fourth race of the year definitely should help catapult this season for him. Before Richmond, he was 32nd in points with two finishes of 33rd or worse. Now, he sits 26th after tonight’s strong run.
We see this all the time with real life and sim racing having similarities. Drivers like Rajah Caruth have made the successful transition recently from sim racing to real life, and not just for local racing either. For Strauss, it is no different, or won’t be different soon. He’s enjoyed his success on iRacing for a total of about three years. He has only improved on the real-life side of things as well since that time.
Strauss is going to be a name many will want to remember for years to come. He is only beginning his career, in both forms of racing, and having success this young, it’s extremely impressive.
Heading to Monza in two weeks (April 11), he will look to continue this momentum. After a poor start last season as well, he followed that up with three good races in a row, including a top-five finish. If the trend stays the same from then, Strauss might be an underdog to compete for a win in the…
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