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[swiftwilly]

I took it up the rear a few times at um, Suzuka, in Prototypes & Gt. Granted I sort of share their fail. They probably expected me to take the corner faster. Sometimes drivers just dont realize some people master direct corners than themselves. They try to be Jedi and 'predict' your motion and may not be so great at perfectly making realtime adjustments. Hence, it appears they have no brakes to the person that took it up the rear

My fix? I'm just not going to qualify anymore unless I think I can take pole and pull away S. Vettel style. If I can't accomplish that feat than I just wont Qualify. The iRating+ is much sweeter when you dont Q anyway

Yea I am beginning to realise that.

I also think its because Skip cars are easier to wreck don't you? I think that is one of the reasons why other series could be better. I mean slight touch of the wheel on the Skip and your out.

Skip iR...last night I started 6th, my car was 13th fastests per irating, I finished 7th and I get -7 for iR. Isn't iR calculated on what # your car is and not where you start on the grid?

 

[superbike81]

iRating doesn't have anything to do with how well you qualify or where you start on the grid. iRating has everything to do with the strength of field in your race, and how well you finish. If you are in a race with a SOF of 2500 and your iRating is 1200, and you finish 7th out of 10 people, you are probably going to gain a decent amount of iRating. However, if you place 2nd or even win a race with a SOF of 900, you probably are going to gain very little (if any) iRating.

In the higher SOF Skip Barber races that I've spectated (I don't race it much myself) the racing is very clean and very good overall. However, the combination of it only being a D-class car, and being a trainer car (easy to spin if you don't drive it VERY well), it's a nightmare for low SOF races which are going to be filled with people who are either very new to iRacing, new to the Skip Barber series, or don't care enough to learn how to drive it properly.

 

[sandboxgod]

Yeah you get higher iR bonus based on your grid position. So I want to start last, kick it, and prey on mistakes or out drive my other competition in the rear

 

[superbike81]

Really? I don't ever remember seeing that grid position effected iRating.

I could see there being a bonus if you started on pole or something. But seems like you would get more of a bonus for starting from the back and fighting your way to a better position.

 

[Pingwhen]

as far as im aware is only finishing position, grid start doesn't matter.

 

[vardd]

Wow, i just finished a skip race. I am still shaking. Started 9. After lap 1 I was 5. After 5 laps i got 3, but a lap after I spun at the hill and went back 8. Well, in 4 laps, i went back to 5, where only 1 spun. I took 2 guys on the straight, as they were following each other, and the rest in T1.

Then P4 and P3 were 9 second ahead, but I was roughly 1 sec faster / lap and there was 10 laps remaining. Damn I though, I can do it! I can get P3 !
At every lap, bang -1 , -.5, -1.3 etc etc, and on lap 19 I got P4, and on lap 20 I got P3 by the outside in T1. All overtakes was clean, but was hard racing. Not a single contact, and 1 spun. Damn that was a good race!

In 1 race, 11 overtakes .

 

[Pingwhen]

this is why i love iracing. stories like these happen every day!

 

[Eric.]

You guys must all get in the wrong rooms. I can't remember the last time I was purposely or even just carelessly hit. Now any contact is either from running hard and rubbing door panels or getting involved in a plain ol' wreck.

 

[superbike81]

You guys must all get in the wrong rooms. I can't remember the last time I was purposely or even just carelessly hit. Now any contact is either from running hard and rubbing door panels or getting involved in a plain ol' wreck.

Same here, but then again, I'm a very passive driver. I study people very carefully before I make a pass and will normally give up a position unless it's in the last couple laps of the race. I rarely drive at anything above 90% of my skill level. Example that rookies can relate to, in practice, I can turn a 59.4 in the MX-5 Cup at Lime Rock, but when I run races, my times are always low 1:01's or high 1:00's. I would rather complete a race in 3rd with 0-2 incidents than risk more incidents or fighting with someone who really doesn't know proper racecraft and takes both of us out.

 

[Imari]

Yeah you get higher iR bonus based on your grid position. So I want to start last, kick it, and prey on mistakes or out drive my other competition in the rear

Nope. Your grid position (if you don't qualify) is directly based on your iRating, but there is no difference to the payout because of where you start.

Made up numbers here for the sake of an example.
-I could qualify, start third and go on to win the race and I'll get +100 iRating.
-I could not qualify, start 12th and go on to win the race and I'll get +100 iRating.
Starting position does not matter, iRating does (remembering that if you don't qualify your starting position is directly related to your iRating).

As several people have said above, all that matters is finishing position. Specifically, yours relative to the people above and below you. The iRating system is a modified ELO system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system). ELO only works for matches with two participants though. So if there are 9 people in your race and you come 5th, iRacing pretends that you lost to the top 4 and beat the bottom 4. It calculates the points won or lost in each "duel", and then sums up to provide your overall points gained or lost.

Strength of field is merely an indicator of the average iRating of the field. It doesn't affect iRating loss or gain directly, as the individual participant's iRatings do that already. What SOF does affect is how many Championship points are given out for the race. A low SOF race will give out zero points for last, and then maybe an additional 2 or 3 points per position above that. A high SOF race could give out 6, 8, or more points per position. Finishing as a midfielder in a high SOF race can be more lucrative in terms of points than a win in a low SOF race.

This is why it's important to have a feel for the strength of field, and not push too far beyond your own pace. Wins are not always possible, and by pushing for an unattainable goal you're cheating yourself out of championship points if you crash. The goal for the season is to win or place well in your division, not to thrash the Division 1 guys when they show up. Unless you're in D1 I guess...


While we're at it, any iRating movement of less than 10 points is basically zero. Your iRating will fluctuate up and down naturally by about a hundred points or so just depending on whether you're having a good week or a bad week. It's not something to stress about. I'm naturally around about a 1500 I think, and I bounce up and down between about 1400 and 1600. I'm down after the weekend when I get thrashed in the F1 and V8s, and I'm up during the week when I do OK in the Skip and Mustang.

 

[swiftwilly]

Same here, but then again, I'm a very passive driver. I study people very carefully before I make a pass and will normally give up a position unless it's in the last couple laps of the race. I rarely drive at anything above 90% of my skill level. Example that rookies can relate to, in practice, I can turn a 59.4 in the MX-5 Cup at Lime Rock, but when I run races, my times are always low 1:01's or high 1:00's. I would rather complete a race in 3rd with 0-2 incidents than risk more incidents or fighting with someone who really doesn't know proper racecraft and takes both of us out.

Not about passive or not when other people hit you.

I am passive, but I always get rear ended or hit in a turn etc. I watch replays, the people that knock me in turns like to dive bomb - none of them are ever wheel to wheel but they just take a different driving line, its stupid.

Rear ends are also idiotic people who don't change braking zones, its annoying.

Take me, last night I followed a car closely, I could of easily taken him but there was a 10% chance I would of ended our races with an overtake, I didn't take it and he kept forcing me to brake etc and I ended up losing contact with him.

How do other people treat me? follow close as possible, bumper to bumper and rear end me. I'd love to race against people like you, but your in the higher SOFs.

Problem is, like you have mentioned superbike, its a difficult car + low SOF. Also, how are you getting 3rd position with times lik1 1.00??? thats like 7th place or something even in SOFs I am in.

Hence why I am looking to finish up my Skip career and move on. I might have a go at the premier series instead, at least that is C Class or I will take up star mazda. My aim now is to farm SR to move on, no more Skip series thanks.

 

[superbike81]

Not about passive or not when other people hit you.

I am passive, but I always get rear ended or hit in a turn etc. I watch replays, the people that knock me in turns like to dive bomb - none of them are ever wheel to wheel but they just take a different driving line, its stupid.

Rear ends are also idiotic people who don't change braking zones, its annoying.

Take me, last night I followed a car closely, I could of easily taken him but there was a 10% chance I would of ended our races with an overtake, I didn't take it and he kept forcing me to brake etc and I ended up losing contact with him.

How do other people treat me? follow close as possible, bumper to bumper and rear end me. I'd love to race against people like you, but your in the higher SOFs.

Problem is, like you have mentioned superbike, its a difficult car + low SOF. Also, how are you getting 3rd position with times lik1 1.00??? thats like 7th place or something even in SOFs I am in.

Hence why I am looking to finish up my Skip career and move on. I might have a go at the premier series instead, at least that is C Class or I will take up star mazda. My aim now is to farm SR to move on, no more Skip series thanks.

Well, I seem to normally end up in MX5 Cup races with about 1000-1100 SOF lately, and running a consistent safe 1:01 will have you finishing top 5 almost every time. Now if you are talking about Skip Barber races, I dunno, what's a good lap time at LRP for those cars?

As far as ways to avoid getting divebombed, there's no sure way to keep it from happening, but being more passive does help. If you see someone driving erratically behind you, let them by (by hugging the opposite side of the track they are going for), but keep close, in rookie races at least half of the time they will make a big mistake because they don't know how to deal with the pressure of having someone less than 1sec off their bumper. The majority of the time, these divebombers aren't doing it on purpose, they just don't know any better.

Oh, and I think right now my iRating is only 1100 or something right now because I was concentrating on low incident races to get back up to B-class so I could start racing the Ford GT. Occasionally I still do a MX-5 rookie race, just because of convenience, being that they run every hour, but most of the time if I am going to mess around in the MX-5 it's in the InRacingNews Challenge or the other multi-class one they do. I'm a sucker for multi-class racing, so that's mostly what I do. The good thing about the races that run less often is you normally get a higher SOF, so generally better racing, but I don't win those races either, I just aim to keep it clean and consistent, which normally works out for me.

My first race in the Ford GT @ Spa today (both car and track I haven't used in a while), I was running like 13 seconds off the pace of the leading Ford GT since I didn't even practice LOL! But keeping that pace, I actually got second in class, just because people ahead of me were pushing hard and ended up crashing out.

 

[superbike81]

Just did my first oval race in the Legend.

It absolutely was a wreckfest, but using my passive skills at accident avoidance, I managed to miss all of them except one. I got a 4x when someone drove straight UP the oval for some reason, perpendicular to the direction they should have been facing, I slammed on the brakes, avoided him, but the guy behind me couldn't stop in time and rear ended me. Pitted after that, fixed my damage partially, drove the car the remaining 20 laps or so with the wheel 45 degrees off, and finished 5th. Even managed +0.03 SR.

I kinda like it. Can't believe I'm saying that, I enjoyed oval racing.

 

[Patrocles]

Not about passive or not when other people hit you.

I am passive, but I always get rear ended or hit in a turn etc. I watch replays, the people that knock me in turns like to dive bomb - none of them are ever wheel to wheel but they just take a different driving line, its stupid.

Rear ends are also idiotic people who don't change braking zones, its annoying.

Take me, last night I followed a car closely, I could of easily taken him but there was a 10% chance I would of ended our races with an overtake, I didn't take it and he kept forcing me to brake etc and I ended up losing contact with him.

How do other people treat me? follow close as possible, bumper to bumper and rear end me. I'd love to race against people like you, but your in the higher SOFs.

Problem is, like you have mentioned superbike, its a difficult car + low SOF. Also, how are you getting 3rd position with times lik1 1.00??? thats like 7th place or something even in SOFs I am in.

Hence why I am looking to finish up my Skip career and move on. I might have a go at the premier series instead, at least that is C Class or I will take up star mazda. My aim now is to farm SR to move on, no more Skip series thanks.

Well, I seem to normally end up in MX5 Cup races with about 1000-1100 SOF lately, and running a consistent safe 1:01 will have you finishing top 5 almost every time. Now if you are talking about Skip Barber races, I dunno, what's a good lap time at LRP for those cars?

As far as ways to avoid getting divebombed, there's no sure way to keep it from happening, but being more passive does help. If you see someone driving erratically behind you, let them by (by hugging the opposite side of the track they are going for), but keep close, in rookie races at least half of the time they will make a big mistake because they don't know how to deal with the pressure of having someone less than 1sec off their bumper. The majority of the time, these divebombers aren't doing it on purpose, they just don't know any better.

Oh, and I think right now my iRating is only 1100 or something right now because I was concentrating on low incident races to get back up to B-class so I could start racing the Ford GT. Occasionally I still do a MX-5 rookie race, just because of convenience, being that they run every hour, but most of the time if I am going to mess around in the MX-5 it's in the InRacingNews Challenge or the other multi-class one they do. I'm a sucker for multi-class racing, so that's mostly what I do. The good thing about the races that run less often is you normally get a higher SOF, so generally better racing, but I don't win those races either, I just aim to keep it clean and consistent, which normally works out for me.

My first race in the Ford GT @ Spa today (both car and track I haven't used in a while), I was running like 13 seconds off the pace of the leading Ford GT since I didn't even practice LOL! But keeping that pace, I actually got second in class, just because people ahead of me were pushing hard and ended up crashing out.

good advice!
👍

 

[sandboxgod]

Imari the higher the SOF the more you earn. I know from experience

 

[vardd]

Also, how are you getting 3rd position with times lik1 1.00??? thats like 7th place or something even in SOFs I am in.

Most people dont qualify. Its that easy. I rarely do. Race starts at :45, quali at :15.
I rarely have time to qualify with the life I have here. Therefor I rarely win, but I have some very intense racing, every 2 races.

I hope you will have better luck in Star Mazda

 

[sandboxgod]

That is why I don't plan to Q cause if you do and someone faster is behind it will get ugly. In real life it is unusual for people not to qualify but in iracing it is way to common

That along with short race lengths and Internet lag are main contributors to incidents

I do think bout 45 mins reduces the 'sprint' mentality and forces people to be more consistent

Good news is class c races are longer unless it's a fixed race

Btw my pc died. Looks like I'll be taking a 'break' from iracing til I get a chance to build a new PC

 

[Blaze_409]

"died"? How did it die? Can it be fixed? Did iRacing kill it?

 

[sandboxgod]

my motherboard is gone. So I want to replace my motherboard, CPU, & ram and use this opportunity to upgrade.

Just sucks I'm going to miss out on the Star mazda for next few days

On the bright side I'm thinking bout going with a core i7 or at least a nice fast core i5. Should be flying way over 100 fps after I'm done and ready for the future

 

[Nastradamus87]

Most people dont qualify. Its that easy. I rarely do. Race starts at :45, quali at :15.
I rarely have time to qualify with the life I have here. Therefor I rarely win, but I have some very intense racing, every 2 races.

I hope you will have better luck in Star Mazda

I see this comment a lot, and I'm not doubting its truth, but this really hasn't been my experience in the skip barber series. In my splits the majority have qualified by mid-week and the entire grid except maybe a few have qualified by the weekend.

I'm having the best races of my life in the skippy and don't plan on moving on anytime soon. 👍
I just wish more familiar names from gtplanet would get on board with iRacing.

my motherboard is gone. So I want to replace my motherboard, CPU, & ram and use this opportunity to upgrade.

Just sucks I'm going to miss out on the Star mazda for next few days

On the bright side I'm thinking bout going with a core i7 or at least a nice fast core i5. Should be flying way over 100 fps after I'm done and ready for the future

I just got an i7 a few months ago and have my fps capped at 120. I rarely see it dip below the cap, expect at some tracks in a congested T1.

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

I only really get to "race" a couple of nights a week, usually just one, but I always make sure to qualify. Starting in the front two rows helps a lot with staying up front.

I look at qualifying as just another practice session (with sr consequences to keep me honest).

I don't understand why people don't qualify, if I know I'm going to be tight on time I'll do it the night before.

 

[sandboxgod]

Yeah if there is for sure no iRating bonus for starting in the back and gaining spots then it would be great if people did. this way the faster dudes are upfront like they should be

But instead, you got slow dudes like me up there right behind pole at starting pos 2. Really??? In the average race half the field can score a better time

So what happens is these guys are desperate to get upfront in the Fixed races and all chaos can possibly ensue. This doesnt happen every race. But it did happen on a few

Starting from the pit isn't an option too since I was doing multi-class races.

but I have decided multi-class is just too much for me at my current skill level. It is just too stressful trying to get around the slower Gt Cars. They have made me lose a few precious positions lately. Now that I'm a little faster, I'm actually fighting to get into the Top 5. I'm not fast enough to delay getting around the GT car. So often times, right or wrong on my part, I want to hurry up and make the pass. But sometimes they give ya the middle finger and close the 'gap'. This happened in a recent prototype race and I had nowhere to go. I spun out and took the GT car with me. It was 100% my bad. Replays showed me that. But that really sucked

I might try to finish up my Prototype & Gt season tho because I've already done 4 weeks. would like to get my $7 credit towards another track/car

To add insult to injury, they nerfed the HPD. It was a good change but it has made passing on straights all but impossible. We gotta hijack turns from GT cars and hope they keep the gap clear

 

[livemusic]

Just got a code for a one year renewal with 50% off!

 

[sandboxgod]

That's awesome! Hook me up!

 

[left888]

I built an i7 system about a year ago, I just recently added another GTX 570 and on a single screen I was getting almost 400 FPS. I run 3 55" HDTV and in SLI mode I get around 100-140 FPS.

Get triple screens, whether you go nVidia or ATI, 3 screens is a must, it will improve your racecraft instantly. As everyone that has gone to 3 screens says, once you tried triple screens you can't go back.

my motherboard is gone. So I want to replace my motherboard, CPU, & ram and use this opportunity to upgrade.

Just sucks I'm going to miss out on the Star mazda for next few days

On the bright side I'm thinking bout going with a core i7 or at least a nice fast core i5. Should be flying way over 100 fps after I'm done and ready for the future

 

[sandboxgod]

Triple screens would be a dream come true. Defintely something I am interested in at some point within the year.

 

[Seismica]

Really struggling to put in fast laps in the MX-5 at Lime Rock Park.

At Okayama there were no bumps, I didn;t see what all the fuss was about with the laser scanned tracks.

Here though, holy cow. Bumps, bumps everywhere!

In my first race here the other day my internet dropped out going into turn 1 so that one was lost. I just had a 2nd placed finished starting from 11th, a big crash at the right uphill section took out 5 cars infront of me and several other cars went off before then. My best time was only a 1'00.3xx. Going into another race now, wish me luck

 

[superbike81]

3 screens is just about the best upgrade you can do for iRacing. Even if you have to go smaller, its well worth it. You can get 22 and 23" 1080p monitors for $140 now and Radeon graphics card to run them (or Nvidia SLI) for under $300.

Do it!

 

[R_a_c_l]

I went to class A last week and I begin in iGPS.

I'm in 1'15.6xx in Watkins, I'm 13th in Qualify and 1rst in TT but I will lose a lot of position I thins ^^

Sorry for my english ^^

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

I built an i7 system about a year ago, I just recently added another GTX 570 and on a single screen I was getting almost 400 FPS. I run 3 55" HDTV and in SLI mode I get around 100-140 FPS.

Get triple screens, whether you go nVidia or ATI, 3 screens is a must, it will improve your racecraft instantly. As everyone that has gone to 3 screens says, once you tried triple screens you can't go back.

Show us your setup Left, it sounds sick! I want 3 screens in the worst way, but I'm very limited on space, my rig is basically wedged between my wife's desk and a wall. I guess I need to buy a new house so I can upgrade to three screens. Makes perfect sense to me.