iRacing

PaulC2K said:
Yeah, they're a little slower now.

MX5 Cup S1 W12
Anticipated Pole: 0:58.749
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3247855.page

MX5 Cup S2 W03
Anticipated Pole: 0:59.749
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3253530.page

So looks like they're roughly 1sec/min slower, through whatever they've changed since last season. People seem convinced that it drives nothing like the real thing though, so whatever they updated hasnt improved opinion it seems.
Click to expand...

Explains why im just under 2 secs off my fastest lap around Laguna Seca..
 
I decided to do my 1st proper season the the SRF (free car) and bought all of the tracks needed for the season. Was about $90 so I deemed it worth it. The racing is so much fun and for the best part clean and curteous unlike the rookie MX5 classes, but that is to be expected.

I usually practice the new track, get to within 102% of the top times and then hit a practive session to get used to traffic and different lines / overtaking, regular incident areas that occur. After that I push in a few qually's to get up on the grid and go for some races. Mid week, I stop and move onto the next track on the schedule.

Remember to check the weather settings for the actual races and set your practices up the same, it makes a huge difference, sometimes 2 seconds or more per lap.

Not doing to bad at the moment, 4 races into 2014 S2 and in the top 5 of Division 5 and always in the top split of the SRF.

I would recommend having a look at the SRF, participation is always good and always 2 official splits every 2 hours.
 
@Marshstyles
Cheers for that link, i've read about 2/3 of that first post and im very tempted to sign up for it now, particularly with it having Oulton Park on at the moment and i havent been around there since the TOCA series :D
Would cost £56-60 depending on PayPals version of $/£ rates, so might just dive in on that as ive heard the sub-community is very good for that series.

Sadly the other series im interested in which i have the cars for already, dont use many of the remaining 7 tracks in their schedule, but i think they use a decent mix, most will have 3 of them plus a 'free' track too, so i just might give this a go.
I think i'll take a look at some youtube videos and get an idea of the speeds and if its slow enough (yes, slow :D) then that might be perfect for my next move, and i'll do a few races in the other series when they're at tracks i have, and pick up some experience from them.
I'd really like to try and push for a C license for season 3, but thats probably a big challenge and i think D license would be fine cos so far i havent really raced with people, i've only kept up with them or kept ahead of them, never really been in a position to attack or defend, and until that becomes familiar in iR im going to feel a little apprehensive around others.
 
Hmm, just so im understanding this correctly:
SkippyRotationSchedule.png


Thats saying Season 3 will also use Oulton Park, Mid Ohio and Bathurst? Cos it seems to me that they'd be the ones being dropped. 3 'free' tracks, then Silv/Brands/Sonoma, COTA/Zand/N.Hamp, plus 3 newly released for season 3, that makes 12.
So 'retained for 1 more season' is referring to retained for 2014-S02. Correct?

edit - looking at the blue blocks, it makes more sense. so n/m :D

Im quite tempted to drop Bathurst, love the track, dont like driving/racing around it.
What happens if 'addition 3' is an oval venue without a road layout? I havent looked to see how many of the Nascar venues are already in there, but im not sure i'd be impressed at buying an oval just because it has a weak infield (New Hampshire looks v.good to be fair) as while i enjoy watching nascar im not sure i'll ever bother with it so being pushed into buying ovals kinda sucks. They'd just pick an existing track and add it into the rotation instead perhaps?
 
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Okay, ive purchased those tracks & Skippy now,

Skip Barber Formula 2000, Oulton Park Circuit, Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Mid-Ohio, Sonoma Raceway, and Circuit of the Americas.
No Bathurst, had it been part of next seasons schedule then fair enough, and maybe i'll get it if im really enjoying it and dont want to miss a week, but as its being dropped im not fussed, and at least i'll enjoy Oulton & Mid Ohio, Bathurst is in pCARS (so is Oulton, though ive not tried it yet) and thats good enough for now.

I've seen they're saying Donington should be added next season, with Monza & Imola (meh and so-so) following. Would rather see somewhere less common, but i like Donny personally, the pCARS rookie @ Donington is one of my fav combos.
 
Had my second race back earlier on Laguna, was in 3rd ina good battle and on the last lap I blew the gearbox.. School boy error!
 
uugh, just as well i didnt know things like that are modelled in the game cos it'd only add another thing to worry about as the laps count down :D

Tried a few laps in the Skippy, about 30+ around Oulton Park, it doesnt like me! I absolutely hate the brakes, anything more than about 20% braking and its locking up.
I can do 1:56 pretty consistently if i remove the ghost car and just drive at a steady pace, and 55's from time to time, but pushing leads to crashing.
I'd removed some of the fuel so it had about 24 laps worth, more than enough for full race distance (13L), and i think that made matters worse, i think the weight might have made it a little more stable but i did have a 1h break so maybe i wasnt driving as cautious and being too confident and pushy.

Im not bothering to try it elsewhere, just like i havent tried any of the other cars or tracks except whats next on the race schedule, but i can imagine Oulton is a handful, theres a lot of undulation in corners and until you figure out the right line, break-point, when to hold and when to push, its easy to end up chasing your tail mid-way through the corner. I'd also forgot that people had mentioned its a tough school car, probably the last thing i needed right now, but with a bit of luck maybe i'll benefit from taming it over time.

edit - hah, 1:52.9 in online practice, much better :D
 
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Marshstyles said:
FAO PaulC2k

This page might help you plan your purchases

Clicky

Cannot recommend the skippy enough as it is so much fun now. The spec ford racer is also very good (and free iirc).
Click to expand...

Was that you practising around Oulton just then?
Sure ive seen you in the server and only just clicked it was whoever friended me without me knowing who they were :D
If not, NM :D

Starting to get into a better rhythm with the skippy, although i seem to do this, it'll start to click and i'll be doing decent times, and then i cant lap for making mistakes or being 0.3/sector slower than my PB etc

Wouldnt mind, but in that last session i'd come nowhere near my PB, got to the last corner at the end and the chequered flag comes out, but i carried on as T1 was alright (it felt poor, but the time said it was fine) and i somehow managed to go green or 'pink' for all the sectors and ended up knocking 0.8 off my PB, 1:52.1 and of course the game refuses to acknowledge it (im guessing it might still be my PB, it displayed as a PB lap, but not for the session obviously).

Also, whats the deal with most drivers? I cant tell if they have no etiquette, or no mirrors, but yesterday if felt like every other lap someone would pull out of the pits 1sec ahead and simply stay there rather than pulling over and letting me go seeing as im on a flying lap and they're on an out lap. Today wasnt much better, less pit-outs, but plenty of people considerably slower just standing their ground or spinning then driving onto the track and again carrying on like its a race and stopping me from continuing a lap :mad:
 
On a completely unrelated note, yesterday was the 10yr anniversary of our old LFS team, fantastic bunch of guys and considerably faster than i'll ever be too, i lucked in cos plenty of them were as fast as it gets really.
Infact, the VW Jetta comp iRacing did, was won by one of my old teammates, Wyatt Gooden, and i know another ran him close for a while not sure how it ended. Both of those guys were quick, but we had 2 drivers definitely faster, in LFS at least, faster than 3ID's Hugo Luis even.
 
Managed to beat my Lap Time around Laguna, so that would have netted me a fast time before the updates! All this from applying the braking skills I have learnt from Karting. Happy Days.

Last race I was in went south. I managed to get a hell of a start and launch into 1st from 2nd. By the end of the first lap I was 2secs clear, then by lap 3 I was nearly 6 secs clear where it all went wrong. Coming upto the corkscrew on the fast left hander I went to wide, caught some gravel and ate some barrier.. That was me race over! :(
 
Is it happening because you're downshifting gears accidentally or its bouncing on the limiter? Whats causing it, cos i'd rather know beforehand to try and avoid it, than have it happen and have a race ruined.
 
PaulC2K said:
Was that you practising around Oulton just then?
Sure ive seen you in the server and only just clicked it was whoever friended me without me knowing who they were :D
If not, NM :D
Click to expand...

Yes I was having a bit of a nightmare adjusting to iRacing after an evening of AC.
I did plan to just do 15 minutes practice and hop into the race but I couldn't get round turn 2.

Had about an hour's and was getting faster so decided to go for the race.

Started 4th and finished 2nd. I was having a great battle for P1 until I had a huge moment on the double right hander. I was trying too hard and almost come off again.
 
Im wondering whether to even do this weeks race, i seem to go from one end of the spectrum to the other from one session to the next, and right now i doubt i could finish a race through x1's alone. I'll either clock up a load of x2's from spinning or x1s from running off-track with 2 wheels on the track still.

Just seems like i'd be losing license pts and iR score by entering. Although i still feel my iRating is too high, simply because i somehow managed to finish 2 of the 3 races without a handful of mistakes i'd normally make. Throw them in there and it'd be saying something completely different.

I think i'll try and do the MX5 race tonight, and ive also signed up to the iGP Skippy series so i think i'll do that race on Monday night and see how that goes and possibly do the official race shortly after if i think i can finish it.

I think i'd be better if i stopped looking at the clock, if i just drove round looking for consistency rather than always pushing for green/purple sectors, as thats what ive done in the last 2 races and its paid off, 30 laps with just 1 run off-track wide but no real time loss, and ive took 1st & 2nd in high splits, compared to in practice i'll make more mistake laps than clean ones, let alone fast laps.
 
Just done my skippy race, 2500 SOF, finished 10th of 14. Had got as high up as 8th but T2 kept catching me out, first time i 360'd and managed to get on-track and off the racing line but lost 3 places, the second time i'd lost it but managed to bring it under control down the escape road (short loop track) and turn it around but had to hold off coming straight on due to traffic when i was pushing for 8th again.
As it turns out, despite assurances from my spotter i had enough fuel, i spent the last lap engine spluttering from the first chicane.

15.x laps it claimed, for a 13 lap race, and it managed 12.5. Didnt cost me a position though, the rest were too far back or disconnected (having spent most of the race insulting each other).
 
ffs. Just wrote a long post, only to get a bloo..min expired token msg :mad:

Just had 4 races since last post
Skippy @ Oulton (1GPFun League)
Skippy @ Oulton (Series)
Skippy @ Oulton (Series)

First one was just a bit of fun, decent clean racing in there, too many mistakes though, but its a regular crowd so didnt expect much, but in amongst it were some clean & fast laps (1:53-1:54) and it was enough to convince me to try and redo the series race and improve.

So jumped in, had some cracking racing for about 4 laps, including being the outside car of a 3-wide into T1, and lined up a beautiful undercut on the pair of them :D
Ended up spinning a lap or so later, car behind had nowhere to go and i went flying so the car was wrote off, went for repairs and by the time i get to the Oulton hairpin theres some a-hat driving slowly and weaving side to side, im closing in and it looks like he's moved over, and then he turns across and ive got nowhere to go but into him. Car was fine, but i wasnt remotely impressed (was facing the inner barrier too). He said nothing.
At the end, i checked the replay and a couple of ppl are nattering about their issues, and i mentioned mine, and they said 'that'll be [name] i bet', found the incident and sure enough its him.
Put in a protest, simply because its a douche move, it wasnt racing it was douchyness and lack respect for others. He was a Class A 3.5, 2600 IR, so no newbie.

Joined the next session and im in 4th, im thinking it might be a decent race if i can keep it together. 2nd on the grid is Mr Weavychops himself! If i'd realised before the grid, i'd have said a few things, fortunately i didnt :D
Into T1 and i made up a place, following the weaver and the temptation to send him into orbit at the next braking zone was high, but i decided to have a go at him, and ended up late-braking into the hairpin and going around the outside of him, i could have disconnected right there and then and i'd have been a very happy person :D
Ended up holding my ground, sticking with the leader, and trying not to push him cos tbh i wanted us to pull away rather than scrap, as we were pulling away while those behind us scrapped.
I wanted to get a large gap behind us and then push for the win, till then i'd stay about 0.8-1sec behind, coast a little, knowing i had something in reserve. We'd got about an 7sec lead by lap 6 when he spun at the first chicane, and off i went. Put in some really nice laps while thinking i was coasting, and then wasnt paying attention and screwed up a downshift into the hairpin and lost control :(
New leader was just close enough to get past, might have been able to block it but its a douche move and i figured i had enough in me to take it back, but after a couple of laps i wasnt gaining and ended up making another mistake but ended up finishing 2nd which I was more than happy with, and the weaver was 13sec behind me too.

I wanted another crack at the combo, but it was the last one, it'd switched to Laguna Seca, and i'd had no fun in the MX5 cup either, but i figured i had 10min to see how it was, and despite not completing a single lap i decided to join the race anyway.
Who was there... Weaveychops :mad: 4 places ahead.
Was passed him within half a lap too :D but clearly he'd practiced as much as i had, cos we were both terrible (i spun badly about 4 times, and 'not badly' another 2 i'd guess) and he only spun the once just wasnt as quick as i was, and i managed to hold him off and finish 5th.
There was another guy racing in with us, he definitely moved over at one point to let me through (think he knew i was faster and I spin often!) and the 3 of us had a quality Tortoise vs Hare race going on :D Not sure what happened to him but he disconnected near the end :(


What ive noticed though is that right now im fine if ive got something to focus on. If ive got someone ahead of me who's the same speed as me, im fine, i'll keep up and maybe i'll push and try to pass. If theres someone just as fast as me or faster behind me, im a bag of nerves, im too busy looking in the mirror at them, and not focused on my task, im a bit like that with slower drivers ive just passed too.
Put me on my own, not trying to push to make up for mistakes and i'll be fine as long as i dont get inside my head or lose focus. :rolleyes:

Its not helped by the fact that it still feels like theres no grip if you're not on throttle, and a slide is so hard to catch, and i'll either fail and lose it or i'll catch it and over-compensate and send it off in the other direction :(
 
Yeah once you reach a certain point it becomes a game of concentration for the large part, and I'm not really sure how to improve that. I'm still kinda nervous when someone is right behind, but I can now also drive reasonably decent lap times as well. I also still sometimes lapse in concentration, but again got that little bit better at stopping it before it gets too bad, with that one thing I try to do is once I notice the small mistakes that seem to come before the big one I just focus on doing a commentary on my lap in my head, so "brake at the start of the kerb, down two gears, late apex" really boring but just trying to make sure I'm paying attention and also hitting my marks, then after a while the concentration seems to come back and I can start driving more naturally.

With the slides, that's just practice, especially with the skippy. Firstly never be completely off the throttle, hold some on even when hard on the brakes and it's far more stable. For the normal slides just practice, one thing I find helps in every car is to actually spend some time offline just throwing it around, trying to 'drift' as much as possible and then try to hang on to the slide.
 
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