Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm in a broadcast race from 9pm tonight in the NASCAR trucks at Las Vegas.

Well, that was exciting, even if it was a bit disappointing for me personally. I ran in the top 7-8 all race and had to stay out to split the strategies with my teammate who was going for the title. I ended up being 2 laps short on fuel so came in for a splash and dash but got a speeding penalty.

Wow, I am on the broadcast a lot.

Here's me and my teammate Jeff after our 5th and 7th place respective finishes at Auto Club Speedway today.

Started my iracing career yesterday. Got off to a good start with a second place qualifying lap in the MX5 cup, then got off to a terrible start in the race when I realised that I had no idea how standing starts worked. Ended up sat still for a couple of seconds while everyone behind started crashing into each other in their efforts to avoid me. Still, I managed to gain a few places and finish the race in fourth despite having to drive all fifteen laps with wonky steering from getting hit on the start line.

Racing in VR is amazing. I absolutely love it.

I’m tempted by the 3 months for $5 promo they’re running for lapsed accounts at the moment. It would mean going back to a desk setup though.

Did you have to do much optimisation for iRacing and the Rift S, Mark? It was not particularly easy for the CV1 when it was first released.

Very little faff involved, started high and just knocked some stuff down until the frame rate stayed pegged at headset's 80. Ended up losing all the trackside stuff but kept good detail on the cars, track and particle effects etc.

Did you look at the forums at all? I remember some very good advice regarding some settings as they killed framerate and didn’t actually work in VR anyway. Shadows was definitely one of them. I’m not a member at the moment so I can’t dig them out for you.

I just watched a youtube guide on optimising it, I think it did say something about shaders and shadows, although once it could keep 80fps I stopped fiddling with it and just started playing. It's a bit easier to do now as well because they've added in AI races so you can see how it holds up with a full field of cars before going online. I'll check out the forums, though to see if I can get some stuff back and keep the frame rate.

You really want a smooth 90fps to avoid any sort of vomit-inducing weirdness or headaches, especially if you start doing lengthy races.

Is the AI any good?

Rift S is an 80Hz display, also frame rate dips don't seem to affect me adversely any more than they do on a flat screen, I can see it if it happens and it looks ugly but that's it.

The AI seem decent, they don't seem to either smash you to bits or just drive off the track in terror as soon as you go anywhere near them.

Fair enough, 80 is what you should be aiming for then, yeah!

This is well intense. Done hundreds of practice laps but only three actual online races so far I just did my third which was a race in the MX5s at Laguna Seca, a track I know quite well from GT Sport and other games. I qualified second and kept good pressure on the leader until he made a mistake on lap two missed his braking and ran wide on the exit of the turn before the corkscrew. I sailed past into the lead and then the adrenaline just got to me so I immediately span it into the turn after the corkscrew and binned it off into the dirt. I had to just sit there at the side and let five cars go past me before it was safe to rejoin but the next eight laps might be the best gaming experience I've ever had. Just got my head down, made no mistakes and managed to pressure three cars into mistakes of their own to take a third that felt like a win. I've been playing racing games for nearly forty years but this in VR is just something else entirely.

Yes, there’s not a lot like it.

This is so much fun. Got the Skip Barber formula car and I love it, like driving a fast kart. Currently sat in division 4, I just qualified 2nd at Tsukuba which is a great little track for these cars. Got the thing off the line well enough but then the car behind missed their braking and locked up so I got punted off at the second proper corner and into a wall. I got back on and ran a lap before deciding that the damage was bad enough that it was going to be too much of a handful to be enjoyable to drive the remaing 22 laps in so I pitted next time around and then came out in 13th place.

But it's always worth hanging in there even from a lap down as I've noticed quite a lot of people seem to flounce when they get in a crash. From there on I had some really good, fair racing with decent folks and finished 8th. Happy with that! Unfortunately I don't own any of the tracks for the next few weeks of Skip Barber so it'll be back to the MX5s for now. Although after another race or two I should get my C license. I'm "ready for promotion" which I gather means at the end of the season but if I get my safety rating up to 4 I'll get it now.

So far I'd say that overall the racing seems more well-intentioned than it was in GT Sport however the skill level in my current division seems slightly lower than it was at my B rating in the other game, so I'm seeing quite a lot of accidents.

I give it 3 months before you buy a direct drive wheel.

They're not daft with how they've structured this game to try and leech money off you are they? I'm standing pretty firm for now, though. Racing the MX5s and the Skip Barbers when I can. I suppose there might be more opportunities if I wanted to do some circle racing but it just doesn't appeal.

I would suggest to keep costs low to just stick to those cars and then purchase enough tracks so you can do 8 of the 12 rounds in a season. Then use your participation credits to purchase new cars. Will take a while but is the cheapest option.

I don’t regret the money I sank into this game even if I never play it again. I’ve banked over 1,000 in-sim hours and £ for £ it’s the best value I’ve ever had out of a game.

I'd say that it's not comparable but if GT Sport had full VR support then I couldn't justify it. That game costs less than £20 now and they're constantly adding tracks and cars with I guess Sony Corp seemingly absorbing the continued development costs. The sportsmanship is a bit better in iRacing but even in GT Sport once I got full SR and a decent DR the dickheads were rare enough to not bother me. I do think I prefer how the cars feel in iRacing though, it's hard to put your finger on but there's an immediacy there that's slightly lacking in GT Sport but once you're in a battle with someone it's not really a deal breaker. But yeah, all moot because of VR!

Had a really fun multi-class around Lime Rock last night. 35 mixed cars and pretty mixed ability drivers on a one minute lap track seemed like a recipe for disaster, my only game plan was to make it to the end. Gained 4 places for a fifth in class but zero incidents! It was absolute mayhem in places too.

What were the classes? MX-5, Mustang and Solstice at a guess

Yeah, with a few Jettas thrown in the mix.

An automatic diesel, the best kind of racing car

Still loving this game. Mostly just driving the Mazdas and the spec racer Fords so I get to use my h-pattern shifter and toe and heel my way down the gears, feels so good. Also was sharing a track practicing with Carlos Sainz Jr. the other day. At the time I thought it was probably just someone else called Carlos Sainz but it was actually the McLaren F1 driver.

Yep, I’ve been in the same session as Rubens Barrichello before. And raced in a V8 Supercars championship with BTCC driver Ash Sutton.

I hope you’re using the H pattern on the correct side for the car, else you’ll be putting your hand out the door.

Gear stick on the left but I can't say it bothers me when the car in the game is LHD. Much prefer to just use my cack hand for shifting gears and the right one on the wheel.

But teh reelismz

Just learned an ex-teammate of mine won the sprint car world championship last year and is in a good position to win it again this year! Alex Bergeron. We mainly drove NASCAR together for Apex Racing UK.

https://www.iracing.com/bergeron-extend ... rnerville/

Reupped for 3 months. Downloading 40GB of updates.

Installed SODE Fuel Calculator, Crew Chief, Trading Paints, and irFFB.

Let’s go!

Boo: the NASCAR A and B cars have now been replaced with the new versions

Yay: iRacing has given me $15 credit to put towards them

Yay!

I was on the other night actually having not played for a month or two. Really enjoyed it, just need to find the time to work up a track/car combo to the point where I can race again.

I would not stress about too much practice. Of course it helps, but as long as you’re safe and your race craft is good, you should finish well.

I don't hate practicing and racing my ghost, though. Also I just find that the nearer I am to actually quick then the closer the racing is. If my braking points are still a bit inconsistent and I'm racing with people the same then more accidents will tend to happen.

The more practice the better, but if you have limited time then try to do at least one race a week in a couple of series. That way you’ll get participation credits and not have to spend real money on more content

I’m doing the Road to Indy starting from next week. First up the 175bhp Tatuus USF-17 in the US F2000 series. A mix of road and oval courses.

I’ve never really driven open wheelers before so it’ll be something a bit different. If I do well this season I’ll move up to the second rung of the ladder next season, which is the Indy Pro 2000 series featuring the Tatuus PM-18 that outputs 275bhp! If not, I’ll stay at the entry-level series until I feel I’m ready to move up.

I am very slow in these cars.

Just had a 2nd-place finish in the NASCAR trucks at Chicacoland. Stuck it on pole, led for the first 7 laps and then three other drivers got past me as I was saving tyres. No yellow flags at all in the race so I was able to repass 2nd and 3rd and had a ding-dong fight to the end with the leader! Sadly I lost time twice trying to pass him (second time on the last lap) and had to settle for second.

I can still do this apparently!

2nd place is 1st loser.

True, and I’m a bit gutted I didn’t win, considering I was faster, but it’s the best result I’ve had since coming back (a lot of 12ths).

My first win on tarmac where you have to turn right as well as left - only took 134 starts! Quite an eventful race. I qualified on pole, then on the (rolling) start, P2 and P3 jumped it when the pace car went in and got black flags. I then got first place back on lap 2 and didn't give it up again. I had a close call when running wide at one corner on lap 5, but apart from that I kept a nice gap to second place until the end.

Excellent stuff, I've not won one yet. Had every chance twice and blew it.

I need to get back into this, I think it might be more of a winter thing, though.

So, it appears I’m back into this properly. I’m not a very good road racer so I picked the newly released low-powered USF2000, which is considered the first rung on the Road to Indy ladder. I wanted to learn how to drive an open-wheeled car as my experience has mainly been driving oval tintops (aka NASCAR). They run a mix of road and oval courses at North American tracks, so I thought my oval experience would also help in this series.

I started the season very slowly, and while I still wouldn’t consider myself fast, I’m definitely making progress and getting increasingly better results. In 23 starts I’ve had one win (at the Homestead-Miami roval), 10 top 5 finishes, and 15 top 10s.

They’re only 15-min sprint races so my strategy has been to keep out of any carnage on the first lap and then just consistently run decent lap times while not trying to overheat the tyres. Wear isn’t an issue, but I was finding I was losing a lot of grip if I got the back end sliding too much. You can’t really spin the tyres as they’re so low-powered (175bhp), but you can really throw it into the corners with off-throttle oversteer, which seems fine until you can’t keep it on the track anymore. So I learnt to be smoother with my inputs. I’ve realised it doesn’t need a lot of steering input at all, and max 60% brakes or the fronts lock up. It’s a fun car!

I’m still driving NASCAR, focusing on the C-class trucks this season, plus the ARCA feeder series. I seem not to have lost any of my race craft or tyre-saving skills in these cars in the two years I was off the service. I’m catching people fast at the end of a run. My technique isn’t as useful in these shorter races, but if I decide to enter the NASCAR iRacing Series again, those races are 50-100% race distance, so I should do reasonably well.

TL;DR, I’m enjoying iRacing again.

Not seen that car before, it looks great. I love racing the Skip Barbers but the wings feel more decorative than anything, that looks more like a proper wings and slicks car. Got a new GPU coming tomorrow so once that arrives I'm going to get back racing.

It’s new for this season. I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s at Watkins Glen this week.

Just had a look and I think the only thing that puts me off them a bit is some of the tracks they race on. Not being into ovals I don't really want to buy any only to race on some of the slightly iffy infield circuits. Going to try and get to grips with the Cayman GT4, such a hard car to get quick with. Still love the Mazdas and Skip Barbers, though. Slower cars usually mean better racing.

Yeah it’s an American-based series so they do run some rovals (and ovals). But some of them are really good; Daytona, Pocono, Homestead, New Hampshire. Some are definitely shit though.

Popped my new GPU in last night and fired this up for some AI races in the GT4 Porsche around Brands Hatch. Way better with the new graphics card and I'd forgotten how good it is. Those cars, though. The interval between recognising the back getting loose and an unrecoverable spin is so small but once you get that timing down they're really fun around the corners.

What GFX did you get? Geeks need deets!

A Gigabyte RTX2060 Windforce 6G. I ended up in a right fucking rabbit hole of YouTube reviews and Reddit threads for two straight evenings, it was awful. I wanted something that was decent for VR and it seems Nvidia is the preferred option due to the game engine some VR titles use. Also it seems like there are "gaming" versions of most cards (like wtf else is everyone buying them for?) that have three fans and wouldn't fit in my case, they're meant to run a bit cooler or something and cost an extra seventy quid. But I've always had decent luck with things not overheating so I just went for the cheaper one and am hoping for the best.

I get a free copy of Death Stranding with it too so that swayed me a little.

Crypto mining.