BRANDON, MS :: Tyler Hudson excelled in most of the challenges in the PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge at Charlotte Motor Speedway and ended up being one of the runner-ups.  Now, he’s hoping people have taken notice and that more opportunities will come his way.

Hudson, who was a two-time Leukemia survivor before his 10th birthday, has collected most of his racing experience in the form of online racing simulators, most notably iRacing.  Last year, he won the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series iRacing championship.  While that may not seem like much on the outside, it was worth $10,000 to Hudson.  More importantly, Hudson went down in the record books as a NASCAR champion, as the iRacing league is a NASCAR sanctioned series.

Prior to the competition, Hudson’s on-track experience was limited.  He’s run Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, Late Model Super Trucks and Dirt Late Models but, between each of those classes, has only 20 starts behind the cockpit of a racecar.  He said the experience he gained in the competition helped develop him as a driver.

“Going in to it, I don’t have a lot of experience period outside of sim racing,” Hudson said.  “It’s all new to me except the dirt track.  I’ve run dirt before in a Late Model so that came to me but most of the others were new to it.  I think that helped me because some of those guys tried to drive the cars like a Late Model and it hurt them whereas I didn’t go in to it and know what to expect when I got behind the wheel.  Every challenge, I had to feel off what I was doing and how to drive it instead of not having a free notion of what to expect.”

Hudson said the Dirt Late Model challenge on The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway was his strong point in the program.

“There were people there with a lot of dirt background but we were really quick out of the gate,” he stated.  “We were two-tenths quicker than the next quickest guy.”

Prior to the challenge, Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model veteran Don O’Neill showed Hudson the line and how to get around the track.

Hudson said his weak point came during the live pit stop portion of the competition.

“We pretty much had to come in to a live pit with a live crew and do a full blown pit stop.  You couldn’t speed or let the car die.  I struggled with that.  You’ve got to work the clutch, brake and gas at the same time and not hit anybody.  It was way out of my element.  I didn’t do terrible at it.  I just stalled the car and rolled a half-foot too far when I came to a stop.”

Hudson is hopeful that an opportunity may come his way and says he’s already been contacted about possible opportunities.

“I have been contacted by a few people.  Nothing has been set in stone but I’m hopeful.  I proved to myself that I can do it through the marketing side and the driving side and that I deserve a shot.  Something may come from it.  If not, I can’t be disappointed because I’m a sim racer and I got to do all this cool stuff and it doesn’t get any cooler than that.”

For now, Hudson says he will continue to run at Jackson Motor Speedway in Mississippi and finish out the season there and will keep pursuing other opportunities.

“We’ll keep trying to find something and get in a seat.  I will get in pretty much anything and drive it.”