iRacing

It’s almost time for the first iRacing World Tour, the Rolex 2.4 Hours at Daytona (30 Jan 2010).

I’m really looking forward to the race although it’s significantly longer than anything I’ve ever driven in before.

Getting up to speed in the Riley hasn’t been easy as I haven’t driven it for some time but I’m hoping I can last the distance.

Getting custom skins in iRacing is a great addition to the serrvice, this is the scheme I’ll be running tomorrow;

Riley Daytona Prototype

Dallara Indycar

After a pretty decent 8th place finish at Indianapolis last week and a chunk of experience on an oval in the Indycar I was looking forward to Texas with excitement and trepidation in equal measures!

That was my highest ever finish in an ‘A’ class race

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• Week 2 – Dallara Indycar at Indianapolis Oval (popabawa.net)

Skip Barber

We’ll be running a Hosted Skip Barber league over the forthcoming season at simracing.org.uk

It’s open to all members but it’s particularly beginner friendly as we’re trying to use as many of the layouts included with membership so as it currently stands (we may alter it slightly) the only entry requirement is the Skip Barber 2000.

There’s a trial race tomorrow (Tuesday 3 Nov.) at Summit Point Raceway and the season starts on November 10 with 6 races every fortnight after that.

Here’s the proposed schedule – http://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7014.msg122374#msg122374

Unfortunately iRacing (and therefore this blog) have had to take a bit of a back seat recently but I’m hoping to be back racing with the new season and getting involved with a Skip Barber hosted league with simracing.org.uk.

Looking forward to the Dallara Indycar and Corvette CR6 which should be with us later today!

VW Jetta TDi

I was unable to race Road America in week 2 due to holidays so it was off to VIR needing to get some points in the bag.

My plan was to run 2 races with the first being a warm-up so I didn’t bother run a qualifying session before the first race.

I was 11th on the grid from 13 drivers and ranked 11th so there wasn’t much to lose.

The start of the race was pretty clean, I started well and kept position into T1 staying with the pack ahead. With the cars ahead fighting for position, I was a little quicker and started putting a bit of pressure on the cars ahead.

This paid off coming into T1 on lap 2 as the driver went wide leaving me the gap to make an easy pass. Someone else lost it through South Bend (T10) so I was up to 9th

Another mistake by the driver ahead into T1 allowed me to close right up and he struggled to get away but there wasn’t a chance of a pass. On lap 5 he repeated the mistake, going right onto the grass and gifting me the 8th spot.

At this point I was right behind my buddy Don Wright so there was some extra incentive to pile the pressure on. The 5th place driver went off through the evil Hog Pen turn (T17) leaving me in 7th and right behind the two cars in front.

I was gradually reeling Don in but it was only a tenth or two here and there and with only 6 laps to go it wasn’t really enough. Don was driving really well when, unfortunately, he also lost it through Hog Pen, over-correcting after a mistake by the 5th place driver leaving me in 6th with 5 laps to go.

I had a big gap to the cars behind and I wasn’t able to make any impression on 5th place for the next couple of laps when, to my amazement, he also lost it through Hog Pen!

The last 4 laps were pretty straightforward and I was very happy to take the chequered flag in 5th.

Although I wasn’t hugely fast I was very consistent with nearly all my laps in the 2:16’s and, crucially, none of the mistakes that the others drivers made. I ended with zero incidents for the second time in the Jetta this season.

I got +43 irating (1640), +0.14 SR (4.51) and season best 82 points.

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• Week 1 in the VW Jetta TDi – Road Atlanta (short) – Race 2 (popabawa.net)

VW Jetta TDi

After a so-so first race at Road Atlanta (short) I was looking to improve in all aspects in race 2. 

A clean race with no incidents, an improvment in my iRating and more points than the previous outing was the aim. I nearly got there.

With 24 drivers registered we got a split and I was 4th on the grid of 12 drivers in the lower split and ranked the #4 driver so I had to get a good finish.

The start of the race went really well, I got a great start and was able to grab 3rd place going into T1. I can’t remember the last time I actually gained a place at the start of a race!

The driver in 4th started to pile on the pressure immediately though and I went slightly wide into T5 which gave him the opportunity to get on the inside  heading down the long straight to the chicane. Being off-line I decided to concede the spot rather than risk disaster on lap 1.

We’d pulled out a decent gap to the remaining cars so I was able to concentrate on being smooth and being error free.

I was slowly losing touch to the top 3 when, on lap 4, the driver who’s started 12th was storming through the field and catching me pretty rapidly. Coming into the chicane I made the only serious mistake of the race, locking up and sliding through the turn, which let him through very easily.

I was slowly pulling away from 6th place for the remainder of the race, finishing a fairly comfortable 5th.

I got +16 irating (1597), +0.11 SR (4.35) but due to the low Strength-of Field (1412) only 56 points.

Peter Read from Orion Race Team has put together this fantastic tutorial on how to tackle Barber Motorsports Park in the Radical SR8.

This is the 2nd high quality tutorial to appear in the last few days, I hope the trend continues, they are really useful!

VW Jetta TDi

I really enjoyed this track last season in the Riley Daytona Prototype but tackling it in the Jetta is a whole different challenge. The short version of the track offers very few genuine overtaking opportunities but lots of chances for the unwary to chuck the car off track!

Practice went pretty well and I was lapping consistently in the high 1:08’s so I was really chuffed to put in a PB in qualifying of 1:08.3. Not an earth shattering time but fairly respectable all the same.

With 22 drivers on the grid, my time was good enough for 8th on the grid and as I was the 18th ranked driver this was a pretty good opportunity.

The start of the race was pretty clean, I started on the outside and lost a place as 9th got inside me into T1, I stayed with the pack as we came round the last turn into the start/finish straight.

There must have been some contact up at the front as 2 cars were spinning into the barriers just after the finish line. I had plenty of time to react but made a terrible decision which resulted in me going head-on into one of the cars involved in the earlier incident, picking up a 4x incident,  and leaving my orange Jetta in a sorry shape. I hit ‘reset’ but to make matters worse, as I was just over the finish line I had a 60 second plus tow back to the pits to endure and drop down the standings to 19th place.

Although things were looking pretty hopeless I needed to finish the race to offset some of the impact of that 4x incident and to minimise the loss of iRating. Fortunately, it seemed there had been a lot of problems on that first lap so there were still a number of drivers who hadn’t lapped me despite my lengthy delay.

I picked up a couple of spots fairly quickly from the slower drivers and as the race progressed drivers seemed to be consistently making mistakes for me to pick up places.

I had a couple of hairy moments into T1 as my tyres became more worn and I did well to catch one particularly horrendous slide so the last 5 laps or so were pretty tentative. I was still picking up places though and ended the race in 11th, considerably better than my 18th ranking suggested before the race.

I got +17 irating (1581), -0.16 SR (4.24) and 63 points.

I’ll probably try another race at the weekend to try to improve on this weeks points.

This is a great deal for new subscribers to iRacing;

Lotus 79

The championship-winning Lotus 79 has been added to iRacing’s ever-growing stable of cars and tracks! Mario Andretti was nearly unbeatable in the Lotus 79 as he drove to the 1978 Formula One World Championship. Now you can experience the same thrilling ride when you race this vintage F1 car in the iRacing simulation.

Save 50% on your membership for a limited time. Purchase the iRacing F1 package and get a six month membership PLUS the Lotus 79 for only $60.

Offer good for new accounts only.

Click here to take advantage of the offer;

http://www.iracing.com/lotus_promotion.html