My goal in any race I enter is too finish the race, not take anyone out, avoid being taken out and try not to go off or spin. Even that can be a major challenge, especially when the GT and Grand AM races are 45 minutes long. It's a long time to concentrate for, I swear sometimes I don't blink more than once a minute.
@Totality
Thats some of the best advice you can get in I-racing or any form of racing.
Its one of motor racing's best known quotes.
"To finish first, first you must finish" You will not win a race at T1 only loose it.
It's how I approached it and most decent people do, I still 13 months into my sub have my main goal as the bold text. Just my first season in the Radical, i added into it to not get lapped by both skill and another oucker Gravey.
Seeing as I have the day off and I like to give back to the I-racing community, I got so much help from them at the start and still do to this day. Heres some I-racing tips tricks, info I know and wish I knew at the start. bare with me and my english isnt the best and this is all just stuff im plucking straight from my head and writting down as it comes to me. (If i confuse you with anything just ask and ill explain it better)
First thing get your FOV right. as an example I use around 77 with most cars
I've settled around this figure. As a trade off against sense of speed, and situational awareness. I was using 68 for the Radical and 70 for everything else up until a few weeks ago. This is much more accurate and i can hit every apex. But it just lost all sense of speed for me, I couldn't see the other car when side by side in bends.
next get your wheel calibrated and forcefeedback set up correctly. I cant stress how important this part is, slightly wrong and you are missing out on all the tiny hints Iracing is sending to you wheel. I have just purchased a new wheel and finally spent the time getting it setup perfect, It didn't actually take that long an hour or two. But the difference now is amazing. Before all I could real feel in the wheel was oversteer. Now I have the force and weight correct I can literally feel what all 4 wheels are doing. The steering goes light as you oversteer the front wheel inducing understeer. It tries to pull the wheel out my hand when oversteering. when going over hills you can feel the car become light and then regain balance after the suspension as settled, so I know when to and when not to press the "LOUD" pedal.
Ghost racing iracing has a super feature called ghost racing, you can join any offical race as a ghost, and join in any race, you can not interact with the offical racers or communicate with them, but it is a brilliant way to learn some race craft. Trust me when I say this outside rookie, the racing you come across will blow your mind. To get the most out of this you will need to learn how to drive the car at race pace with a full pack around you.
This is very hard to do when you are worried about saftey rating spoiling other peoples racing etc. It will allow you to learn how to follow people. To learn that you will have to adjust braking zones, in ghost mode it doesn't matter if you get this a bit wrong and plow into the back of someone, all you will do is drive straight through there car.
You are aerodynamically effected by the official racers, so you will get the draft on the straights and you will also suffer understeer when following someone. Learn how this effects each car at different bends in a safe place where you are no harm to anyone or your safety rating.
You can also practice your overtaking in braking zones using the ghost feature without hurting anyone, if you overcook it slightly, something else I recommend to learn, when i drive a track once I'm up to pace with it I do laps of just driving offline in every bend. This gives me a feel of what the cars going to feel like and act when I'm overtaking or being overtaken and off the optimal race line. Dont just drive like a robot and run the same line all week in practice, experiment.
PRESS CAPS LOCK key i think it is by default to bring up timings. Iracing as a brilliant lapper system built into the game. You can see fastest lap, sector overall and per session. Don't base everything on best lap, most the time i use the session sector screen, this way you can see exactly where you gain and loose over a lap, when you hit a new line that is faster you will see it straight away on the lapper overlay, fastest lap just gets you into bad habits of playing catch up all lap, and it doesn't really tell you about where you are up or down in bends.
START FROM THE PITS in rookie, I still do this now when I race the MX5 and have not qualified. You only loose around 6 second starting from the pits and those 6 seconds allow the t1 Heros to run each other off the track. By the end of lap two in a MX5 race I've overtook half the field. Due to them running into each other. Specially at first when you will be racing in the lower splits.
You be racing alongside other rookies who will do crazy things. Just remember position means nothing until you are at Class D its all about gaining a good safety rating. If you drive safe you will gain a decent Irating anyway. You don't want a high one off the bat or you be racing the really fast guys. You want to be racing guys around your pace.
Ermmm what else, AA remember you get free Iracing credit for just taking part complete any series running 8 of the 12 events and you will get $5 i think it is. To use how you please, for each series you enter you will get $5 just for taking part. So each season Iracing basically give you a free car for taking part if you use this and all the promotions correctly its not as expensive as everyone thinks. Buy items in sets of 6 giving you a 20-25% discount. Buy Iracing credits when they do $100 when you credit 75% then add 6 items to your cart and get a further $25 off.
Ask us before you make purchases some of the cars will not suit you and will just sit in your garage making you regretting that $11.95 aka the Jetta
how I hate you.
one purchase I recommend to everyone is Oulten Park one because its some of the best tarmac layed anywhere in the world. But it also comes with every single layout, each one really changing the flow of the track. It also suits every car on the service. The smaller layouts are really great for the smaller cars the longer faster layouts like International the GT and formula class of cars are right at home.
The amount of times i find myself loading Iracing for a race and end up running TEST mode at Oulten Park In either the Mx5, Radical or Lotus 79 around it. Its such an intense lap and just seems to bring out the best in every car.
Also don't be afraid to ask for help. The idiots on Iracing run at a tiny minority everyone is willing to help really. People will even watch you run laps and give you tips if you ask in the forums. Gravey an OCUK member helped me no end at the start of this, and Skill helped me find some speed. By me just following him when I saw him online and learning new lines. I even asked him to watch me run a few laps once or twice which he was happy to do.
Learn setups once you are up to speed just the basics and share them on the forums, one you learn what the car does you can learn how to get it to drive how you want, The base setups are very good though. I use it on every track for the mx5. Past the mx5 download a few sets for each car and find something that you like and feel good pushing at a decent race pace.
Don't try and drive the alien setups at first they are setup to bend the laws of physics. Just ask for a balanced setup on there or HERE I'm sure everyone will be happy to help. Then just tweak that for each weeks track.
Once you have a setup your are happy with share it. I did this with SKILL once at Suzuka i think it was in the radical, this way you can find out how fast the setup really is. The feedback he came back with for me also helped me build an even better base.
I'm sure theres loads more and Ill list it as it comes to me.
I-racing is not perfect but at this current time its the closest we have. It does a brilliant job of simulating a proper Motorsport series and as near bang on physics if you forgot about some of the weirdness This will only get better with time each build that comes 4 times a year makes the sim better and better getting closer and closer to a real tire model. Theres a guy on the forum who drove a GT3 Audi in Grand AM a few weeks ago and used Iracing To practice the car and track. he gives a fantastic write up of how a GT3 car feels In real life compared to the Iracing version 99% of it is very good, and he highly praised how it got him ready for the race and how the real life car compares. This is the car he drove in Grand Am for a race team so he knows what hes talking about
Final thought.
Above everything have fun Remember Iracing is a hobby on one hand it can be expensive if you look at it at just being a standard game but thats not what you are getting and the quality of the conent is second to known. I'd spend every single penny of it again without thinking. Well everything but that Jetta purchase.
If you see anyone from this part of the world fear them. They bleed blue.
