I can definitely recommend the Skip Barber, this week is at Laguna Seca as well so no need to buy any tracks just yet, although that also means it's at Laguna Seca this week, which sucks
Go here:
http://www.iracing.com/buy-1-get-2/
And click on the green 'Activate Promotion' link about a third of the way down, then enter your details etc and sign up (that's the 3 months for $12, there were some other codes posted earlier in the thread, to use one of those you need to go to http://www.iracing.com/membership/#Promo and enter the promo code from here)
Email is noskilluk <at> gmail <dot> com, Cheers
If it's really that bad I'll just wait and get a DFGT.
That's the beauty of the iRacing system itself, essentially it's run, to an extent, like a proper racing series. It has a sanctioning body (called FIRST), and a sporting code by which all drivers should adhere to. Those that don't adhere to it can be protested and in theory punished.
On a more cynical level the protest system is completely closed, you lodge a protest and then you just get a 'protest accepted/denied' style email, no idea of punishment etc. And a lot of people hold the belief that protesting is worthless (I disagree, even if they are lenient for a first offence they do make a note so multiple offences are likely to get more punishment)
But more importantly on a race by race basis is the Safety Rating (SR) of each driver, this (along with a 'minimum participation') are what allows you to race the quicker cars, so you start at a Rookie with an SR of 2.5, if you get that over 3 at the end of a season, or over 4 at any time, you'll progress to D-Class, then C, B and A.
There are also two more levels, Pro and DWC, Pro is achieved by a combination of high SR and a high iRating (which is influenced purely by finishing position, eg it's how 'good' you are). DWC is achieved by being in the top 30 iirc of the Pro drivers at the end of a special championship.
But for mere mortals SR is essentially a case of work up to A Class and then just maintain it. How these reflects on racing is simple, every incident that occurs during a race, from an off track '1x' to a heavy car contact '4x' gets put on your record (against corners taken), this is then used to determine your SR.
As most people want to increase their SR, and hence licence level, the racing is made much cleaner by this rating being there. But it's not without it's issues, firstly it's 'non-fault' eg if someone ploughs into the back of you then you get 4 incidents as well as them, this is mostly evened out by the multitude of times that people won't plough into the back of you
The other issue with SR is that it is 'easy' to keep/gain at Rookie, so the lower level racing has a habit of being much rougher/messier/dirtier than the higher level racing, but that generally keeps itself specifically to the rookie races themselves, as soon as you get to D Class and the skippies it gets a lot cleaner, and even the rookie races are generally quite good compared to some of the stuff I've seen on LFS/rFactor public races...
Leaning towards the late model at the moment but not sure how popular it is.
I almost bought a Thrustmaster Ferrari GT for £37 yesterday, but your post stopped me.
What "proper" sims would you recommend for offline play? I want to try iRacing but I'd like a wheel first.
Hmm. Wondering what to race next for the Ovals. Dying to race the Impala SS properly but it's class A and i've only got a class D licence
Being able to finally see my SR has certainly pointed out how much i suck at road racing!
Usually plenty racing the late model, however this is a must buy car to race on road courses. There used to be a private league that ran LM on road courses and it was immense fun
ORO? I made the website/kinda-co-hosted that one with Nigel, was great fun and there was talk a while ago of bringing it back in one way or another, we'll see
So is there actually a way of playing this without having to hand over credit card details, ala a demo??? I can't find this on their site.anyone ? trying to sign up to the free demo before it expires. need a members email to sign up
he referral program rewards members for inviting new racers to join iRacing.com. If you have been referred to us by a current member, and you identify him or her when you sign up for a three-, six- or 12-month subscription, that member will receive a $10 credit in iRacing dollars. This credit can be used to purchase additional content or applied to the extension of his or her membership. Simply enter the referring member's email address in the box to the left, and we will take care of the rest.
Note: The Referral Program only applies to new subscriptions; account renewals are ineligible. In order for the referring member to receive the referral reward, the email associated with the referring member's active iRacing account must be entered by the new member at the time of subscription.
)
