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

iRacing member David Sirois put this fabulous video together of a Riley Daytona Prototype race at Road America.

What’s pretty cool is that I was in this race and had my best finish of the season (7th and 131 points)

Riley Daytona Prototype

After 2 disasterous races, crashing out at Lime Rock on lap 1 two weeks ago and suffering a disconnection at Infineon with 5 laps to go last week, it left me comfortable 2nd in my division but still with a slim chance of the title with a great finish in this last race.

For once, I seemed to have some pace, qualifying about half way and things were looking good as I started on 8th on the grip from 20 drivers. Being ranked the #18 car there was a good chance of some iRating improvement.

Alas, it was not to be, coming into T2 on the 2nd lap in 9th place then engine just died and I was forced to retire.  I hadn’t blown an engine in a race before and it was somewhat inexplicable. A hugely disappointing finish to the season , especially if I’d held onto the 9th place I’d have won the division!

The result was 18 points, -46 iRating and a loss onf 0.06 SR.

Related articles by Zemanta

• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)
• Week 2 in the Riley – Virginia International Raceway (popabawa.net)
• Week 3 in the Riley – Sebring (popabawa.net)
• Week 5 in the Riley – Watkins Glen (popabawa.net)
• Week 7 in the Riley – Road America (popabawa.net)
• Week 8 in the Riley – Road Atlanta (popabawa.net)

Riley Daytona Prototype

After last weeks bumper points haul at Road America it put me within striking distance of the top spot in division 8 so there’s plenty of motivation for the rest of the season.

I was coming to Road Atlanta as a complete rookie having never driven there before and I struggled somewhat to get and speed or consistency to begin with. Learning new tracks has never been a strong point of mine so I knew I had to just continue slogging through the laps until I started feeling comfortable. This is one tough track!

After a couple of attempts I managed a reasonable qualifying time, I seem to be unable to do much better than 75% down the qualifying times in this series and I was thereabouts again this week.

Joining the race I found myself 11th on a grid of 17 drivers rated as the #9 car so I knew I needed to pick up a few places to increase my iRating and pick up those valuable championship points.

The driver ahead decided to start from the pits so I was immediately up to 10th and altough I lost my traditional place at the start that driver slid off onto the grass in T1 leaving me a nice gap to the car in front to exercise a bit of caution going into the difficult T2-T3 section over the hill.

On lap 4 that section claimed it’s first victims finding 2 drivers stranded off-track which moved me up to 8th with 36 laps to go. At that stage I fully expected to be picking up a couple more places if I could run a mistake free race.

I was slowly pulling away from Tom Cabral and Umberto Perrotta who seemed to be having a ding-dong battle behind me and I was slowly gaining on Patrick Kluiters ahead. Coming up to half way I was only 3s behind Patrick and I was still steadily pulling back a few tenths per lap when we came across the first back-marker. I completely misread the situation when lapping which nearly ended in disaster which I narrowly avoided but lost 3s in the process. I think I lost a bit of confidence at this point as my lap times slowed and Patrick started to pull away again.

The traffic continued through the 2nd half of the race, being lapped and lapping the slower drivers. I didn’t do a great job in traffic and seemed to be losing loads of time, combined with my tyres starting to wear I was driving defensively but this was allowing Tom and Umberto to close all too quickly!

With 6 laps to go the gap was down to 5s but I knew I was  safe at that point as long as I didn’t make any mistakes which I managed and kept the 8th place over the finish line.

The result was 78 points, +28 iRating (1771) and +0.18 SR (4.42)

That takes me to 527 championship points and to the top of division 8! That’s my pre-season target of 500 points smashed as I still have another 2 races to add to the total and maybe another good result to replace the poor start to the season at Daytona where I only scored 63.

Related articles by Zemanta

• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)
• Week 2 in the Riley – Virginia International Raceway (popabawa.net)
• Week 3 in the Riley – Sebring (popabawa.net)
• Week 5 in the Riley – Watkins Glen (popabawa.net)
• Week 7 in the Riley – Road America (popabawa.net)

After racing at Road Atlanta last night I’m unbelievably leading my division!

iRacing Prototype Challenge division 8 standings

Riley Daytona Prototype

Missing Barber Motorsports Park last week due to illness was a disappointment after I’d had a good few practise session, I think I might have pulled out a decent result. Nevertheless, with the best 8 weeks points counting my couple of missed weeks aren’t critical yet.

I think Road America suits me, a 6th place finish in the Radical last season and the season before that in the Star Mazda bear that out. I seemed to be struggling a little for speed though in practise and a couple of disasterous timetrial and qualifications sessions dropped my SR dangerously close to the 4.0 threshold.

I was able to make 2 races this week so my plan was to make the first effectively a warm-up for the second. Just like at Watkins though, race 1 was a complete disaster. On lap 10 the driver in front tangled with a lapped car on the fast ‘Kettle Bottoms’ section and span, leaving me nowhere to go but into him finishing my race with a dead-last 17th place.

In race 2 it was an ultra-high strength of field which left me in 13th on the grid from 15 starters. In a high stregth field there’s plenty of points on offer and with only a small field it only takes a few cars not to finish to be in the points.

The race started OK, I lost a place off the line but re-took it into T1 and settled into the race. The two cars behind me had some contact so I was able to pull out a few seconds gap but it was apparent that everyone on front was significantly quicker!

This wouldn’t have been a great result except that there was an amazing amount of problems for other drivers, PC’s freezing, pedals malfunctioning, engines blowing, running out of fuel, it seemed like everyone was having problems and I was slowly moving up the field despite not getting anywhere near any other drivers!

With a couple of laps to go I got lapped by the 1st & 2nd drivers but I was sitting in an amazing 7th place, equalling my best finish of the season (7th at Sebring) so I took it easy to the chequered flag not anting to risk anything.

Logging off I was stunned to see I’d scored a best-ever 131 points! +63 iRating (1747) and +0.16 SR (4.20) rounded out an awsome, if completely undeserved result!

I’m now at 449 points against my projected 500. With only 5 weeks out of 8 in the bag there’s no excuse for not absolutely smashing my pre-season target!

I’m up to 3rd in my division and eying that top spot, I’m not too far off….

Related articles by Zemanta

• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)
• Week 2 in the Riley – Virginia International Raceway (popabawa.net)
• Week 3 in the Riley – Sebring (popabawa.net)
• Week 5 in the Riley – Watkins Glen (popabawa.net)

Riley Daytona Prototype

Due to work & family commitments I missed out on Laguna Seca last week so it was off to Watkins Glen with one of my 4 drop weeks used up.

The only laps I’d done around Watkins Glen were a disasterous race in the Radical last season and in the Spec Racer Ford when it was released at the start of this season so although I was reasonably familiar with the track it needed a lot of work in the Riley to get up to speed.

Practise went fairly well and I put in a qualifying time of 1:43.684 which put me 98/151 which is not too bad and only the 2nd time I’ve been in the top 100 qualifiers this season!

I planned to do 2 races this week with the first acting as a warmup for the second.

That was the plan anyway, race 1 was a complete disaster, I started 17th but lost a few places due to a poor start, a tangle ahead of me going into the chicane for the first time meant everyone had to brake early but the driver behind was completely caught out, failed to brake in time and rear-ended me through the chicane to end my race on lap 1.

-63 iRating, -0.38 SR and ZERO championship points. Not a great start…

So, the pressure was on for race 2. I started 16th out of 24 as the #19 ranked driver. I felt pretty comfortable with the car with some extra practice under my belt as it looked like I could handle the drivers behind me so I was looking to pick up a few places.

We made it through the chicane this time but another lap 1 incident nearly finished my race when the driver in front oversteered right in front of me coming out of T6 “Chute”. I thought I’d evaded him cleanly only for a 0x incident to register which shortly became a 2x as (I assume) he lost control. The car was undamaged though so maybe luck was on my side this time.

Things settled down quite quickly, pulling away from the cars behind I picked up a few places as others crashed out and found myself in 13th behind Haydyn Bevis who was running exactly the same pace. We had a titanic battle for nearly the whole race. I thinkI was marginally quicker but I was unable to get near enough to try for a pass until he made a mistake through T7 “Toe”, I switched to the outside to pass but in my enthusiasm I dropped a wheel on the grass, lost momentum (as well as a 1x incident) and the chance was gone.

That proved to be my only shot at 12th place. As the laps ran down and the leaders caught and lapped us I came out of it worse and dropped a few seconds behind so I had to settle for 13th.

A season best 89 points puts me up to 3rd in my division and I got +27 iRating back to take me to 1768. No change to my SR with those 3 incidents.

My target of 500 championship points is looking quite possible now with 318 in the bag after 4 weeks against a mid-season target of 250.

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• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)
• Week 2 in the Riley – Virginia International Raceway (popabawa.net)
• Week 3 in the Riley – Sebring (popabawa.net)

Riley Daytona Prototype

With a nice result at VIR last week it was time to head to sunny Florida and the historic Sebring track.

Sebring hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for me in iRacing up to this point, in the previous 3 races here my best result had been a lowly 17th place which I really wanted to improve upon.

Initially I was really struggling for pace in practice until I changed set-up’s which dramatically improved the handling of the car and I was suddenly nearly 2s a lap quicker!

With my newfound speed I managed a fairly respectable 1:57.9 in qualifying, 3rd fastest in Division 8 and good enough for 7th on the grid of 18 drivers. As the #14 ranked driver this was a great opportunity to pick up some iRating as well as championship points.

Not having resets available any more seems to have really cleaned up the start of races and we had another good start in this race. Unfortunately I lost 2 places into the first turn with the #6 driver, Jakko Y Oksanen, taking off like a rocket and gaining an impressive 5 places and Fabrizio Raffa, with who I’ve had many close races with, nudging in front.

At the end of lap 2 I was in 9th, close behind Fabrizio and we were pulling away from the rest of the field. The car was feeling good and I was looking to pass at this early stage as I obviously had a bit of extra speed. Coming into T7, the hairpin, I got a little too close and locked the wheels, semi-spinning and missing Fabrizio by a whisker, my front wheels going over the grass to pick up 2 incident points. Incredibly, I ended pointing the right way and was able to take off again before the car behind caught me. Phew!

Luck was on my side again on the next lap, I’d nearly caught Fabrizio coming up to Le Mans Curve when he made a slight mistake into the turn running wide, I hit the apex just about perfectly and was able to cleanly pass on the Ulmann Straight and into the last turn.

That was about the extent of the excitement in the race though, I was gradually losing time to the top 7 but pulling away from the rest of the field. I’d settled for 8th when one of the leaders experienced an unfortunate disconnection with 2 laps to go to gift me another pace for an excellent 7th place finish!

I scored a season best 86 points (my 5th best points haul ever on the road in iRacing), increased my iRating +41 to a best-ever 1720 and gained +0.10 SR despite the 2 incident points.

My target of 500 points is looking quite possible now with 229 in the bag after 3 weeks against a target of 187.5, and that’s not taking in the account the possibility of dropping my first week score of 63 from Daytona.

Next week it’s my favourite track Laguna Seca, can’t wait!!!

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• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)
• Week 2 in the Riley – Virginia International Raceway (popabawa.net)

After a fairly decent first week in the Riley Daytona Prototype it was off to Virgina International Raceway in week 2.

This is a tough, tough track in the Riley with more than it’s fair share of challenges. Plunging down towards the Oak Tree turn had my heart in my mouth every lap.

The fastest drivers were unbelievably quick around here and despite a set-up I was comfortable with I was only able to qualify 75% of the way down the field.

A lot of guys hadn’t qualified so I started 14th of 28 on the grid, being the #22 ranked driver there was a decent chance of picking up some points so I was aiming to finish in the top half of the field.

VIR rewards consistency and half way through the race I was up to 9th, not due to any pace I was able to generate, just through others mistakes. I was 7s ahead of the driver in 10th when I made my one and only mistake running wide onto the grass at the penultimate corner. This cost me dearly as I was unable to rejoin safely the group of 3 drivers were able to pass before I got back onto the track losing me over 15s.

I wasn’t able to make up any ground and ended the race 13th so I wasn’t too unhappy. There was close, clean and exciting racing throughout.

77 points, +29 iRating and +0.22 SR.

Unusually I was able to run a second race this week and due to the scoring changes, I’d drop my worst result so there’s not too much to lose, I felt I could go a little better than the first race due to the additional experience.

I wasn’t really prepared to end up in the highest SOF (Strength of Field) race I’ve ever been in, these guys were incredibly fast!

Starting 14th of 16 on the grid I decided that I’d probably had my best result of the week and settle for running a consistent race, gain some SR and hopefully minmise the iRating loss. As I was the #14 ranked driver I probably wouldn’t lose a great deal anyway.

I started pretty well, shaking off the 15th and 16th cars but I was only able to stay with the pack ahead for a few laps, even when I was lapping well they were still over a second per lap quicker!

It was a pretty boring race with no-one to race really and my concentration suffered with a silly trip onto the grass on lap 13 which lost me even more time.

A heart-stopping moment on lap 17 came from when the 3rd place driver stranded himself sideways on the track after lapping me. Thank goodness for the yellow flags as it was on an area of the track with little visibility and without the warning I would have ploughed straight into him probably finishing both our races. Luckily we both came through unscathed.

Whilst I was dawling around, some other drivers managed to variously destroy their cars to leave me at the chequered flag with my first top 10 finish.

Because of the very high SOF I scored a decent 80 points (dropping my previous 77 from the standings), iRating +22 and +0.13 SR.

My target is to score over 500 championship points this season for the first time, which is an average of 62.5 (the highest 8 scores from 12 weeks count). So far I’ve scored 63 and 80 so I’m slightly ahead of target so far!

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• First race in the Riley MKXX Daytona Prototype (popabawa.net)

What a fantastic video!