Meet the Driver: Chris Darling

As we continue our meet the driver series, we sit down cith Chris (CD) Darling for a one-on-one.

Q: It’s been a long time since we all raced together. Would you tell us what you’ve been up to over all these years?

I think mostly the same as everyone else. I found myself busy, had a lot of things going on in my personal life and decided around 2010 or 2011 that I just didn't have the time for sim racing. I was out of sim racing until April of 2019. I've grown up a lot since then, traveled, got married, now have 3 kids and absolutely enjoy it. I started my own business about a year ago and also started working from home which has given me the opportunity to start a lot of hobbies I got away from. Got back into sim racing in April of 2019 and realized that officials racing wasn't for me, so I found a small group of guys and started our own league (NSRA) and have been running there ever since.

What was your initial reaction when Garrett reached out about getting TNR up and running again?

Excitement of course! I had a lot of great times in TNR when I was younger. We made a lot of memories together and I had made a lot of friends sim racing with the TNR guys when I didn't really have many in my real personal life. I was and still am pretty excited to have an opportunity to get this thing rebooted. Hopefully we have even more TNR alumni tag on in the future and get racing again with us.

Do you have a favorite memory in TNR from our days as a NR2003 league?

My favorite memory in TNR was literally my very first TNR race and my first NR2003 race in general. I remember hearing about NR2003 on the old EA forums and not really knowing what it was. I knew a couple guys through that forum, and they convinced me to try it out. It was pretty funny. I remember specifically downloading NR2003, getting a CD Key and plugging my controller into my PC within the matter of about an hour or an hour and a half. I had never raced NR2003 and here I was plugging in and getting going for the first time with TNR as they headed to a road coarse (Mexico I believe). Somehow, I was able to outlast much of the early mayhem and win the race, eventually outrunning I believe it was Matt Leach. It was pretty cool. My first race on the game an hour or so after getting it downloaded, no practice, and I had won a TNR race. I think from there on out I stuck with NR2003. I even remember the car I ran that race, the #39 Navy Dodge Charger.

The fans out there demand to know: Will long-time sponsor Yellow Transportation be sponsoring your ride this season?

Of course! I plan on trying to get a Yellow Transportation and a Fleetpride car together. It'll be a little more difficult. I'll likely have to personally remake the logos since Yellow is now YRC I believe, but I'm going to get it done! I won two championships in the Yellow Transportation paint schemes. I can't run TNR without those colors!

What are your goals for this season? Would anything short of a championship be disappointing?

I don't know if it would be disappointing, but it certainly is what I am aiming for. Not sure how good Floppy is, or if Matt White - who I know can kick my rear - is going to be able to run full time with us. I think I've got a shot for sure. I think my main thing is that I just want to win a race at some point. One thing I've struggled with is winning. I've ran 2nd and 3rd a majority of the time on this service. I tend to always surround myself with guys who are faster than me and way above my skill level. Being a year into my comeback to sim racing, I think it's time to win some races.