iRacing after 2+ years

[superjames1992]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

James, what do you think of the cup car these days?

I ran some laps with it at New Hampshire and it didn't seem quite as loose off the turns as it was a year ago. I found it easier to keep her going straight. I'm wondering if that's just because it's a flat track and you don't have the big transition between the corners and straights like you would on a mile and a half, or if the car is a little easier to drive.

With the new aero package this year and the decreased HP, the cars are easier to drive this year, IMO. I believe I read on the forums from one of the admins that they probably decreased HP with this build a little more than they should have because the Cup cars evidently had ~25 more HP than they expected when they developed these cars near the start of the season.

It still depends on the setup to some degree, though. Kentucky was a looser setup than many this year and was a little more engaging to drive. The NHMS setup is kind of tight, especially early in the run, in comparison.

In the fixed series, a lot of the setups have been on the tight side this year, it seems. Of course, you can always race open and tinker with the setup to make it looser, but I don't always get a chance to make setups and I often am just trial-and-erroring it when I do since I usually don't know what I'm doing half the time, LOL.

That being said, the Cup car is still definitely the most difficult stock car on the service. I've always found the truck and the Xfinity car to be kind of sterile to drive in comparison and hardly ever drive them since you're 100% on-throttle for 95% of the lap with those cars at some tracks.

I was excited for that until I realized it was 100% distance. I've got a hard enough time focusing for 100 miles, much less 400.

Haha, yeah, looks like they're making it one of the 100% races this year. I don't mind a few of them, but I definitely wouldn't want to do them every week! My butt gets sore by about halfway and the fact that I race in an office chair probably doesn't help that, haha!

On that subject, I enjoy when you post your races to YouTube.

Well, I did record my NiS race at Kentucky from a couple weeks ago. I finally figured out how to get the file down to a reasonable filesize so that it didn't take 10+ hours to upload given my terrible upload speed, so here it is.

I didn't record the NHMS race from this past week, unfortunately. I don't really want to remember that race too much, anyways. Racing a clean race then getting taken out in the typical late-race idiocy of restarts never makes me happy.

As for the Kentucky race, it was fun and I made a decent late-race charge in the last 30 laps that was enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS5bCXmDjMg

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DS5bCXmDjMg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[superjames1992]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

On another note, I'm remembering one of the big downfalls of iRacing. Too many cars/series, not enough time in the day to race them all. I've only been back for 48 hours, and I've already practiced in about 10 different cars. I really need to pick one or two and stick with it rather than switching every 5 minutes.

Haha, I know what you mean. The truth is that I enjoy the Late Model and Super Late Model, as well, but I try to constrain myself to just racing the Gen 6.

On road, I was going to race GT1 this season, but Watkins Glen and the next week at Monza did not go well for me as far as SR is concerned, so I got frustrated and have ran a few Mazda Cup races lately, which have been surprisingly enjoyable. I think I got up to an A 4.99 SR on road at one point and now I'm down in the Bs. I guess I forgot to drive or something. Granted, I don't have as much time to race as I used to, so I've mostly focused on oval for the past year, so limited practice probably doesn't help.

Then again, SR on road side is pretty irrelevant since I don't really care to race the Williams F1 car at this point and that's the only A license road car for some reason.

I did post it there too. I didn't feel I was doing much wrong since I was consistent all race in my line and never weaved up and down. Through the turns I stayed tight throughout them all and never made it look like I was going high ever on the track. I just wanted to make sure I did nothing wrong in the eyes of the community as well.

Knowing that I didn't, awesome! The win feels pretty good, but once I get in higher series and better SOF races, it'll really be nice to win. It was a top split, but it was still rookie, though mostly D licenses, but still a weak 1500 SOF.

Winning a top split rookie SS race isn't easy. There's usually some fast guys in those splits. I won a couple of those races at USA right before I got promoted, but it isn't easy to do as the top few guys are usually fast. I actually found the top split rookie SS races to be surprisingly clean and enjoyable.

As far as low-lining, Charlotte in the SS is basically a drafting track, so I don't really see anything wrong with it as that's the way iRacers drive on the superspeedways (then again, I hate superspeedways, haha). If you don't low-line, you're going to lose your position for sure given the power of the draft on the straights at Charlotte in those low HP cars.

I kind of lully-gagged driving the D class series to get promoted when rookies were at USA as I was really enjoying it, then it switched to Charlotte where wreckfests abound and I said "screw that!" and immediately started racing the K&N car.

[Chaos81]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Just got my first iRacing win

Congrats! I was going to say you'll always remember this moment, but then I tried to remember my first iRacing win and I'm at a loss.

It keeps it somewhat affordable.

I blew affordable out of the water when it comes to iRacing many years ago. I believe I cried the last time I added up how much money I've spent with them.

[Chaos81]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

With the new aero package this year and the decreased HP, the cars are easier to drive this year, IMO. I believe I read on the forums from one of the admins that they probably decreased HP with this build a little more than they should have because the Cup cars evidently had ~25 more HP than they expected when they developed these cars near the start of the season.

It still depends on the setup to some degree, though. Kentucky was a looser setup than many this year and was a little more engaging to drive. The NHMS setup is kind of tight, especially early in the run, in comparison.

In the fixed series, a lot of the setups have been on the tight side this year, it seems. Of course, you can always race open and tinker with the setup to make it looser, but I don't always get a chance to make setups and I often am just trial-and-erroring it when I do since I usually don't know what I'm doing half the time, LOL.

Thanks for all the info. Guess the only way for me to see how things are is to give it a shot. Seems like quite a few of the Class A Fixed races go official, so hopefully I'll be able to find races there.

Well, I did record my NiS race at Kentucky from a couple weeks ago. I finally figured out how to get the file down to a reasonable filesize so that it didn't take 10+ hours to upload given my terrible upload speed, so here it is.

Woo! Thanks. I should probably spend my time practicing rather than watching others race, but it's good to have races to watch after work.

[Redacted01]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Got a 5th in the truck series at Gateway. Combination of banking and just having a better feel of the truck made the race tolerable. Still hit the wall a few times more than I should, but to get a 5th when I pitted as much as possible to stay at the back out of the leader's way, I'll take it. I was a bit slow, but not significantly and thankfully was the best car in the bottom split. Makes it much easier to practice driving than practice surviving like on Saturday when I was the worst car in the top split.

[canes21]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

I own both the Late Model and National Series cars, but I've just stuck with SS in rookie to try and reach D4.0. Unfortunately I get to 3.6 and then always have my next race have a 10 car wreck I get in the middle of it seems.

I'd love to do LM or National series, but from what I've heard, the participation is pretty low lately in both. I'll have to look tonight if I get on and see how many people are registered. I usually race no earlier than 9 pm est.

[Chaos81]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Got a 5th in the truck series at Gateway.

Nice. Just remember, the wall doesn't move so you should stop driving into it.

I'd love to do LM or National series, but from what I've heard, the participation is pretty low lately in both. I'll have to look tonight if I get on and see how many people are registered. I usually race no earlier than 9 pm est.

I just took a look at the LM races from the last couple weeks and they seemed decently attended. Most races went official with the night races US time having multiple splits from the looks of things. Seems like you shouldn't have much a problem finding races, at least in the LM.

[Redacted01]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Nice. Just remember, the wall doesn't move so you should stop driving into it.

Looks like a quote they'd have on the driver's briefing.

[superjames1992]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

I blew affordable out of the water when it comes to iRacing many years ago. I believe I cried the last time I added up how much money I've spent with them.

It is technically possible to play this game affordably, but I don't think many pull it off successfully. I know I didn't. Before I knew it I had poured in hundreds of dollars into content, etc.

The good news is that once you get close to full-content (there's a few things I do not own like the Kia Optima and a few short and road tracks), it isn't all that expensive. $50/year for the subscription isn't that bad (at sale times) considering I'd spend $60/year on yearly releases of sports game on consoles.

Of course, I try to forget that I probably spent close to $1,000 in content over the last couple years (maybe not quite that much, but I have honestly never broken it down and I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to that much).

Thanks for all the info. Guess the only way for me to see how things are is to give it a shot. Seems like quite a few of the Class A Fixed races go official, so hopefully I'll be able to find races there.

A Fixed tends to official nearly all the time, except for some of the overnight hours in the US. B Fixed and especially C Fixed go official even in the overnight hours, though like I said I don't find them as fun to drive, personally.

They also lengthened A Fixed races recently, so they're a little longer than they used to be and require a pit stop, which is nice. I don't really run any A Fixed anymore since I do usually do NiS weekly, but that was a nice add since they used to be under a full fuel run length.

Woo! Thanks. I should probably spend my time practicing rather than watching others race, but it's good to have races to watch after work.

Haha, I watch others, too. It's fun. Empty Box makes good videos on the road side and I usually watch his, and I usually watch/skim through RutgersKev's and TeamAbrams' videos, as well (of course, I usually see myself in their videos, haha).

[superjames1992]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Got a 5th in the truck series at Gateway. Combination of banking and just having a better feel of the truck made the race tolerable. Still hit the wall a few times more than I should, but to get a 5th when I pitted as much as possible to stay at the back out of the leader's way, I'll take it. I was a bit slow, but not significantly and thankfully was the best car in the bottom split. Makes it much easier to practice driving than practice surviving like on Saturday when I was the worst car in the top split.

Gateway is a fun track! I raced it in the LM a few weeks back and had a good time. I especially found turns 3-4 to be fun with the flat banking. You wanted to try to hold it wide open to get a good run going onto the long straightaway (for a LM), but it could get a little loose!

I own both the Late Model and National Series cars, but I've just stuck with SS in rookie to try and reach D4.0. Unfortunately I get to 3.6 and then always have my next race have a 10 car wreck I get in the middle of it seems.

I'd love to do LM or National series, but from what I've heard, the participation is pretty low lately in both. I'll have to look tonight if I get on and see how many people are registered. I usually race no earlier than 9 pm est.

The LM goes official pretty much all the time aside from maybe the overnight hours in the US. The National Series goes official most times, as well. Both have pretty good participation, so I don't think you can go wrong there. Do note that the LM is an open setup car while the National car is fixed setup, if that matters to you. Neither has yellow flags, which can be good and can be bad...

I am James Frizzell on iRacing if anyone else wants to add me. I think I have added everyone in this thread, but I can't really remember for sure.

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/CareerStats.do?custid=125451

[Chaos81]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS5bCXmDjMg

Currently 47 laps in right after your first stop. For all the talk about how the tires don't fall off in iRacing (Or has that talk stopped now?), there was a pretty dramatic difference in corner speed between you and the guys who had stayed out. You left them in the dust like they were standing still.

[Chaos81]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Turn 2 at Indy is the devil.

[canes21]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Just tried my first LM race. It was Lanier. I finished 13 of 15 or 16, but I did finish the race which I was happy about. I think I was over driving the corners too much. I need a lot more practice than the 5 laps I did before the race. I'll download the setup from the forums and give it a go another night. Hopefully I can get a lot faster. I was still about a half second or a little more off pace from the top 5 which I think I can learn to get near that range.

Any tips from you guys?

[superjames1992]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

Currently 47 laps in right after your first stop. For all the talk about how the tires don't fall off in iRacing (Or has that talk stopped now?), there was a pretty dramatic difference in corner speed between you and the guys who had stayed out. You left them in the dust like they were standing still.

It seems like falloff has become a lot more important over the course over the last year. There was a point right after NTMv5 came out where falloff was basically nonexistent, but a few builds ago they introduced a new degregation system, if I remember right. My guess is that this will change later this year when they introduce dynamic tracks (I hope that finally opens up multigroove racing).

There's a few tracks where you can get by with two tires (such as New Hampshire since it's so hard to pass), but generally four tires and fuel are the way to go because, for better or for worse, iRacing doesn't properly model the aero advantages the leaders get in real life. Aero isn't nonexistent, but it isn't as noticeable as it should be as far as making the car tight behind other cars. I do recall it being a little bit more of an issue at Indianapolis with the high-speed flatter corners, though. It seemed to help to take a little lower entry last year when you're tucked in behind another car.

[EJQJ99]

Re: iRacing after 2+ years

I'm excited just received my g27 wheel in the mail this week and will be diving into iracing this weekend. I've played all the nascar games on 360 with a wheel so I hope that little experience helps me get through the dreaded rookie series. But only time will tell.


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