Great idea. I’ve been doing a lot of AI racing because when I have time to race happens to be when I also have to keep an eye on the little one, and I can’t dedicate a full hour uninterrupted to do actual official race sessions. So I just boot up an AI race at whatever track we are at that week to get some practice in. It certainly helps boost confidence and stay calmer when it comes to real races.
Initial frustration: Get safety rating up to 3, then get punted back down to 2.5. Sigh.
Ok, I get it, just drive like they are out to kill you and drive to survive, don’t race. I will do that, but I hope that ultimately, we find saner drivers. I have had some good battles.
I think I’ll stick with the car, for now, as I am finally starting to have it handle.
1 Like
Indeed, it does suck to have the heart of a racer but be forced to drive to survive early on. The racing will get better.
I would say maybe GTs would be a little more forgiving as well since you have fenders and they don’t disintegrate on contact like the open-wheelers, but it’s also good practice to stick with one car and get comfortable with it.
I had an awesome race this weekend in the MX-5 at Oran Park. I just jumped in on a whim with some friends. Qualified P6 after an off-track on my flyer, but knew I was quick enough for a podium. Got up one spot on the start, lead pack was nose-to-tail. We were battling, I made a huge accidental send into turn 1 after misjudging the braking. Guy on the outside was smart enough to give way and keep us both from dying. But I held the spot. Then was battling with P2 and P3. The guy I sent it on caught back up on the white flag and made a big move of his own into turn 1. I gave him space, but braked late to force him to commit. I was completely sideways, two wheels in the grass. He was completely sideways two wheels in the other grass. I gathered it up and he went sailing by, driving completely through P2 in front of me, clearing them both out. I slithered through the whole mess, came out P2. Was so much fun to lean on each other but stay clean. And those cars at that track is a great combination.
It is a lot of fun when it all goes well!
This does make me think that my daydream of owning and running a rental kart facility is probably a very bad idea. People are nuts.
Change of track to Watkin’s Glen makes a huge difference. The pack gets spread out and there’s plenty of room. Back to 2.99 safety rating! Just did my first mistake-free race and came in 4th. Joy!
And another one! It is possible to have a clean race!
1 Like
Nice what series are you racing right now?
I’m doing usf2000. It’s a pretty nice car but it has an odd steering rack. The last bit of the wheel turn seems to summon quite a bit of lock. This ain’t a kart and it doesn’t want to rotate as readily.
I am in that period where I am starting to figure out how to drive the car but still a couple seconds off, generally. It will get faster, question is how long to learn?
I’m assuming depending how long you play, a couple seconds off doesn’t sound too bad, give a few and I’m betting you’ll start getting closer for sure.
On a tangent, here’s an example. I’ve played soccer my whole life, but I used to SUCK at juggling a soccer ball. I couldn’t keep it up for more than 3 kicks or so. In a few months I started be able to get close to 100 kicks. Now I can do 1000. So same concept applies, more time you practice on driving, the better you’ll get.
By the way, if you don’t know what juggling is, here’s a link for those who are interested 
Messi vs Neymar juggling the ball / www.weloba.com - YouTube
It looks like those two could do that all day! Yeah, practice does get you there. What’s a bit different is adapting to the new sim and its rules and how it feels. Also, cars are just different. There is a slowness to the front end of a car that requires a mellow frame of mind when engaging a turn.
Sweet chaos… into 2nd I go.
2 Likes
looks more like one of those game modes where your trying to avoid everyone lol
when you get the new license do you have to buy the new car or is it given to you? like from mazda to skippy do you pay for the skip series?
It seems that you will likely have to buy cars and tracks if you find a series that interests you. I think there are some series that are totally free, though. I think they use the free car and tracks.
Basically the cars are 15 bucks and so are the tracks.
There is some free content but if you progress you will probably want/have to purchase additional content.
Also once you purchase enough content, you start receiving a discount on all additional content you buy. So once you blow your life savings on iRacing, it’s at least a little softened if you want to continue to give them your money for even more tracks.
Lol I’m gonna probably stay in the free content at least in the beginning, just get a feel and whatnot. From your guys point of view, how realistic are the car setups in iracing to the car set ups in real life? Does changing the setup have a similar effect as it would in real life?
It really depends on the car. Most cars a fairly realistic in their setup adjustments, but there are definitely some things that you wouldn’t normally do in real-life, but work well in iRacing. The physics are good but they aren’t perfect.
I know some guys who work on the cars as engineers or mechanics in real-life and they say their knowledge-base is helpful for setting up cars in iRacing, but there are some adjustments that are exaggerated in their effect. They say things like, “I get why it’s doing that, but in real-life we wouldn’t set it up like that.”
Today has been a whole different thing. I have done 5 races so far, all of them clean. I am driving better and better and can now run a couple seconds faster than yesterday. Just got me a podium in a bottom split race. Yee-Haw! My last 4 races were all 4th places with no contact so my various ratings are improving from their recent mauling.
I do see why you had me do this. I really have had to adjust to a new thing. Starting to feel pretty good. Taking the steering rack to 90 degrees like a go-kart helped.
So things are going much better now, thank you @tjkoyen and @speedcraft.
Yesterday’s racing placed 3, 9, 2, 4. Iracing and SR going up, up.
Outside of the mechanics of driving, what is making a difference is how I approach the racing, like my Senseis said.
I am now taking the attitude that if they have the pace to catch me, I should just let em by. And, that’s not the end of the world because they will probably crash themselves, or go tangle with the guy ahead of us, etc.
In short, making cautious decisions when it come to being passed and making passes, wins places. It’s a game of survival and if you can keep going, you can gain places just by staying in the game.
Also, tire wear is a real thing in this game. I am getting much better at managing the tire by being less pushy on track.
Also, Tanguy sees things that are fixable, apparently. Let’s see what my ace has for me.
Oh by the way… hold 5th to limiter which is 134 mph. Don’t shift to 6 until you hear the limiter. I was shifting to 6 at what seemed to be correct but it crawls upwards.
Half or racing is 90% mental. 
You can probably start being a bit more aggressive, when you get into the top splits.
According to Lee Trevino, 90% of putts left short never make it to the hole. 
One thing that goes along with my constant harping about “gathering information” when racing, is checking out the other drivers in your race and see what their iRatings and SRs are so you can kind of guess who will be a problem or not. Since you’re down in the doldrums of iRating Dom, keep in mind you’re being matched with a bunch of guys who also have low iRating and are more likely to crash or be unpredictable. As Warren said, once you are moving up in the splits and your iRating comes up, you’ll be matched with better and better drivers, making the unpredictability and craziness go down.