Iracing - 8 months in

Last July and August I wrote a couple of pieces here about my impressions of
iRacing as a rookie and a class D player. Those impressions were
sufficiently positive that I signed up for a year and bought a bunch of
content so as to progress up the road racing ranks. I decided to concentrate
on the road series and leave the oval series for some other time.

So far my impressions have remained positive. I'm about midway through the
Radical series as a class B driver. When I arrived in Class B I found the
level of competition had become much more intense. The drivers who elected
to go into the Radical are very good. You have to be since the Radical, as
delivered, understeers like a pig. It takes a lot of practise and setup
skill to get it to run at it's best . When it is dialed in it is a blast to
drive.. It's just as well that this is a class B ride, it is not a car for
the "do a couple of practise laps and jump into a race" crowd.

Until I arrived in class B the Safety Rating thing was a breeze. I had no
problem maintaining a maxed out SR. First couple of time trails in class B
I made several errors and saw the SR take an abrupt nosedive. That would not
have happened in the lower classes for that amount of errors. The effect for
me was to force me to concentrate on running a clean race using steady if
unspectacular setups. Once I had made this adjustment SR has again become a
non factor. One of the neat things about taking this approach is that I am
racing above the level that my natural skills would normally put me. I am
presently sitting second in my division ahead of many other drivers that can
go faster than me on any given lap. I however have gone faster than them
over an entire race SR works: though it is a poor substitute for fear
but it's still better than any other solution that doesn't require huge
amounts of time on the part of organizers.

The racing in the Radical series is excellent. Yes there are some shunts and
occasional bone headed moves but no more than I saw in my previous league
racing (which was MARA consisting of a fairly level headed and mature set of
racers). For the most part the field sorts itself out nicely and in some
races I've been in intense battles while in others I've found myself an
empty spot on the track in which I cruise. Typical road racing really. Best
race so far was against a fellow who fought his way past me about a third of
the way in , proceeded to leave me behind and then as his tires wore I
reeled him back in to pass him in the last corner of the last lap to take
the place. Had to do an authentic cool down lap to get my heart rate back to
normal. This was genuinely no hyperbole *fun*

Along the way my iRating has slowly crept up. I find it provides an easy to
understand measure to compare myself to other racers even if I haven't
raced them before. Think of it as reputation. If I see the guy on the grid
next to me is close to me in IRating I know I'll have a close race on my
hands. It's a better indicator of a competitors ...uhm.. competitiveness
than his qualifying speed and I govern myself accordingly

There's some stuff I'd like to see changed such as making qualifying
mandatory and scaling SR so that its affected by both your class and the
class of the car you are driving. That would make it less painful for the
higher class drivers to participate in the shorter "lower" class races which
are the place where the wild rookie learns his chops.

So the plan is to finish off the Radical series and move up to the Class A
Prototypes for next season. After that I'm not sure what I'll do next. I
don't have the skillz that will put me into the Pro ranks which is probably
just as well since I already have a full time job. Maybe I'll start all over
in the Ovals or just stick with the Prototypes and see where I can go with
them.

Is it expensive? Well that kind of depends. Compared to a one time purchase
of something like GTR or rFactor, yes it is. Compared to what I used to pay
in my flight sim days in Warbirds at $2/hour it's cheap. Compared to what it
would cost me to take my ancient 911 to the track for a weekends Drivers
Education session iRacing amounts to spare change. I'm Ok with the cost.
Iracing is sufficiently involving that I have shrunk my game buying
significantly since other games just don't appeal much anymore

Is it fun? For me the answer is yes. The quality of both the sim and the
racing at my present level make it very much so. I am able to counter my
ageing reflexes to some degree with planning and tactics. Old age and
treachery may not always beat youth and enthusiasm but at least I have a
shot.

Anyway there it is. Hope this helps anyone who was wondering what iRacing
was like beyond the introductory levels

DavErb

(DavErb) wrote:
> So far my impressions have remained positive.

An interesting read, thanks.

Just for balance (or sheer devilment! :->), I just threw caution to the wind and
took up the '3 months for $25' bait for ex-offenders.

On day 1 was un-chuffed to discover I'd need to buy another track to compete in the
rest of this season's Skip Barber races.

On day 2, when I finally got round to updating my games machine, it fell foul of
the recent 'update looping' which had affected some people.

On day 3 that's been cured, and I just had quite an enjoyable Skip Barber race
after getting myself back in the groove with a time trial. 13 drivers in the field,
and I finished 7th... thanks at least in part to braking heavily and taking off
some poor sod's front wing. x4's all round!

Feeling slightly warm & fuzzy, and having watched the F1 qualification this morning,
I contemplated buying the Mazda and taking it for a high speed spin. What the heck,
eh, it's only money! :-)

Then I looked at the Mazda schedule. There are four courses left this season and
I'd need to buy two of them (one being the Sebring, which is the track I need for
the Skip anyway... but I *hate* flat racing circuits, and that thing's flatter than
a roadkill sandwich in a trouser press!)

And if I'd wanted to complete the *full* Mazda season I'd have had to buy 5 (five...
f-i-v-e!) tracks... three at $25, two at $20, and the Mazda at $15. That's nearly,
er... a fookin fortune!

Yes, cheaper than a day scuba diving or golfing at posh courses, or getting
divorced, or whatever the latest iComparison is, but enough to wipe the grin off my
face. All of a sudden that warm, fuzzy feeling went all cold and constipated. My
Roger Moore eyebrow went skywards, dragging my sneering nostril with it.

Yes, I know, we've debated all this before a thousand times on RAS. You don't have
to buy everything at once, and a week without racing because you don't want to buy
particular tracks is no great hardship. But... but I dunno... iRacing has a habit
of picking me up, putting a smile on my face, then kicking me in the cheapskate
@rse. :->

I am reminded that I am just not cut out for this. I still love iRacing, and I
still absolutely hate the bl@@dy thing too! :-)

I can see though that this is going to be like one of those relationships you know
you ought to end once and for all. But the make-up sex just keeps dragging you back
for just one... more... try.

Pass the iCondom someone, I'm going to take my frustrations out on a Rookie Legends
oval practice session!

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> Feeling slightly warm & fuzzy, and having watched the F1 qualification this morning,
> I contemplated buying the Mazda and taking it for a high speed spin. What the heck,
> eh, it's only money! :-)

That is the rBoredomFactor of needing something new every other day
kicking in

The Skippy is in my view the most involving car in sim racing right now.
10 months in and it is still my primary series to run in and I still
feel like there is plenty of room for my own development driving it. In
this respect it reminds me very much of the GPL Ferrari which provided
years of enjoyment.

Taking the time to get to grips with the Skip Barber would seem more
wothwhile than spending loads of dosh, feeling bad about it and then
getting cross with iRacing!

> Then I looked at the Mazda schedule. There are four courses left this season and
> I'd need to buy two of them (one being the Sebring, which is the track I need for
> the Skip anyway... but I *hate* flat racing circuits, and that thing's flatter than
> a roadkill sandwich in a trouser press!)


It was never a favourite of mine in other sims but it would be one of
the first tracks on my iRacing schedule now, the bumpiness is really
felt for the first time in iRacing, plus the Club circuit is a great
test track as it has many conventional corners to develop lines with
very clear braking, apex and track out markers.


Cheers
Tony

(Tony R) wrote:

> That is the rBoredomFactor of needing something new every other day
> kicking in

Maybe. But I've never been one for multiple vehicles. I usually pick the car which
I feel most comfortable in in any sim, and stick to it most of the time. Today's
Mazda musings were inspired pretty much entirely by a new F1 season and 'the need
for speed'... and also by discovering I'd unexpectedly gone up to Class C while I
wasn't subscribed.

> The Skippy is in my view the most involving car in sim
> racing right now.

I can't argue with that. It still feels like the best sim vehicle I've ever driven.
But the 2-hourly races are still a pain (though probably necessary given the
limited pool of drivers off-peak), and if the Mazda races fitted neatly in between
(I haven't checked) I might race more often, rather than turning off the PC,
wandering off to do something else instead, and not coming back.

The full Mazda season is a much bigger financial commitment than I'm prepared to
make though, so that's the end of that. At least now I understand why there's a 20%
discount for buying 6 iBits at once... buying 6 iBits is 'necessary' just about
every time you go up a class! I'd be facing a similar bill if I decided to try a
season in the Late Models. Not that a full season of ovals is ever likely to
feature in my sim racing calendar. :->

> It was never a favourite of mine in other sims but it would be one
> of the first tracks on my iRacing schedule now

Interesting. Well, I've got a week or two to decide whether to add it to my rental
list. But given that I'll be around for three months this time I can probably
afford to just give it a miss and keep my costs to a minimum. The rational bit of
my brain is slowly re-imposing control! ;-)

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> The full Mazda season is a much bigger financial commitment than I'm prepared to
> make though, so that's the end of that.

I guess I am still of a mindset that having the opportunity to purchase
sim racing software is something of a novelty as commercial sim racing
software has been something of a rarity compared with other genres.

As a casual FPS player, sim racing is far better value on a per hour
basis even with iRacing in the mix, but we don't want to get into those
iRacing is cheaper than kids type of comparisons

Cheers
Tony

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to do this
details write-up, Dave.

Cheers, Uwe

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