Iracing Fast Repair
Desiderato Chouinard
My personal preference is to disable automatic fast repairs and leave the Pit Box alone. I usually turn off fuel fill on the grid, and disable tire changes if they are against the rules. I have to remember to turn them off again after any pit stop.
Practice, practice, practice. Races, TTs and qualy sessions all count towards your SR. You're probably better off doing test and practice sessions instead until you get the hang of the handling. You'll get it soon enough.
Same. Keep doing practice sessions and get yourself familiar with the beginners guide and sporting code. It'll take time. Don't feel bad if you finish near the bottom. I'm the same way but soon enough you'll start placing high up and gaining more SR.
I also recently joined, this is an annoyance to me getting the safety rating up. Had a great race last night and gained rating, but the other 2 races i lost rating and to be honest its not my fault, and i dont think i was being unsafe.
It feels like if you want to progress to a new licence you have to avoid going fast or being competitive. Example is my 3rd race, i was in 3rd place side by side with another car and lost a place, next corner i took the inside line as he made a mistake, i went to pass and it was all fine until the other driver closed the gap while i was beside him i had no more road so we touched, we both had a little moment and then carried on racing, i came out in better position but my car was damaged (Despite a very small bump), and had to steer to go in a straight line. I wasnt sure if it could be repared to i went into the pits.
I then drove the rest of the race with a wonky wheel, and to be honest kept it quite fast (unlapped myself passing another car), but it meant a few very slight track offs and a spin at lap 19 (didnt hit any walls). Ended the race and lost more safety rating than i had gained in the previous race. Now i admit, if i had not tried to race and instead just cruised around it probably would not have happened.
Which makes me thing, Iracing is more like Icruising, as you can't really afford to take the risks of passing other drivers or fighting for position if you want to keep your safety rating, any mistake by the other driver may come at a cost to you both. Then i did a qualifying session, i was pushing hard to go fast, put the car in the wall once, and the rest of the time i had small track offs (very minor, trying to maximise my line, or going slightly too wide), and i know the majority of my laps were invalid, but i didnt cause any accidents, yet i lost safety rating... again
In real life, there will be accidents and incidents, but contacting other cars in iracing id say is more risky than in real life as even a very small touch usually results in spinning off and/or damaging your car, where in real life it may result in nothing more than a bumper rub, so far every contact i have had with another car, though very slight has resulted in loss of control of the car and damage.
The safety rating thing is out to lunch, when I have to pay for not causing an accident, that doesn't sit well with me since I try so hard not to cause any accidents myself and on iRacing, most accidents I've seen are not on purpose. Maybe the safety rating should be programmed to give a points hit to the one that hit, not the victim of the hit.
Also agreed on the force needed to get spun out or get car damage is also out to lunch, I've seen very slight fender rubs that in real life would have scratched the paint on the car and that's about it, on iRacing, one or both cars go flying off in the ditch as if one T-boned the other.
Right now, I don't care about ratings, I'm just trying to learn to drive better and getting nowhere, I've not been able to do a complete race without spinning out even though I'm desperately trying to be consistent as to how I run each lap.
The one thing I still very much like about iRacing is the sportsmanship, where most people don't cause accident on purpose, next to no crashers on iRacing. Right now, that's probably the only thing I like about iRacing.
I like Iracing so far, the racing is fun, but i am going to crash in practice sessions, time trials and qualifying. I am still learning and as careful as i can be, if i want to be competitive i have to push the car and sometimes i will go off track, but the result in that is that i lose safety rating, so what is the incentive to push faster.
I am a racer, i want to drive on the edge and if i see a chance to overtake i will take it, i really dont like the idea of having to cruise around and be safe, because that is not what racing is about, racing is about taking risks and pushing the limit, yes you have to be safe but Iracing takes it over the top. I shouldnt be spinning off or being penalised for a very slight contact with another car while racing hard for position, otherwise it promotes the idea of just driving around slow and safe, which isnt racing.
I am only driving the MX5 at the moment, the other cars are far more difficult to drive, without the same nice balance so the learning curve is much steeper, i fear my safety rating is going to drop a lot more if i start driving other cars in competitive racing.
If I push it to the limit, I end up in the ditches, walls and anything else for that matter. I'm not skilled enough to push to the same limit as others might be able to. It was refreshing in a race this morning, I had a clean race, went off track only once (small miracle for me) and came in 4th at Limerock in the MX5.
The refreshing thing was when the race was over and I looked at the stats, the 1st place guy was also a Rookie and his fastest lap was 1:00:xxx, to me, that's pretty darned fast, my best lap is 1:01:3xx.
This morning I raced with the attempt of not overly pushing, trying not to tense up too much and just trying to race my race, I managed on doing this, it was fun and somewhat of a accomplishment for me. Not everyone is a natural race driver. My guess is, by the time my 3 month membership is done, if I don't renew, I'll be a lot better with Race07 (Simbin titles) and rFactor and that's why I originally joined iRacing.
my biggest problem aside from other people crashing into me is self control.... no matter how much I tell myself to sit back and let people pass me..when I see someone infront of me I can't help but go after them. Its just so boring to drive around when all your doing is trying to stay in the middle of the road. But obviously thats what I'm going to have to do to keep my rating up.... my thought is that I'll unlock the new features when I get my rating up ...then go right back to my old habits and my rating will drop again....I want to race but I run out of tallent going into slow turns after fast straights
my best result so far was 2nd, I ran a consistent race but I think i was with weaker drivers that time.....and ofcourse the very next race, its a bit later in the day and I'm a bit tired and less focused...the 2nd time into turn 1 on Lime Rock I go off into the wall...thats happend alot ...my downshifting is a big weakness....
this ofcourse isn't to mention the number of times people have run me off the road... my last race I was behind a driver with obviously less skill than me so when I attempted a safe pass he literaly tried to run me onto the grass... the time before that I was forced to drive around someone who was in the process of spinning out...just when it looked like i was past him his back end caught me in the spin and took me out as well....
I've trained myself to run low 1:00 times consistantly during the race now, with qualifying of 59.7. My last 3 races i came 1st, 2nd, 1st. Got 3 wins and 2x 2nd position. This is how i trained myself.
Time trial, 20 consistant laps, dont push just find comfort zones, safe ways to take corners, whenever you have time just run a time trial and blast out some laps at lime rock, trying to be safe, taking note of your cornering speeds when its safe, your SR will rise from this too.
Then move to practice, purposely put yourself into a situation of defending or attacking, purposely search the limits and you will crash but thats the point. Then go back to time trial, try your best to go fast in everywhere apart from your weakest corner, for me and most others thats turn 1, so brake early into turn one, keep it safe and steady and then nail it around the rest of the track.
If you do this you will see improvements in speed and consistancy. I've got to a point where in the race my fastest laps are slower than before, BUT.. in every lap of a race i have been taking it easy going into Turn 1 then making up for it in the rest of the lap, running low 1:00 times consistantly for the race. Check the average laptime at the end of 20laps race, and you will be faster than most of the rookies who gunned it through turn 1 trying to make up time and run wide, something i was doing myself in my first races, and for what? 0.1-0.2s faster? along with working the tyres harder and risking putting myself out of a race.
c80f0f1006